Ruby Nebula
by 10Stargazer01
Summary: The story of how Alice and Jasper met and how their lives got entwined with the Cullens
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

There's something about waiting that makes your life come to a sudden hold. I couldn't remember the last time I had gone a day without wandering what _he_ was doing at the current time, but at least I had gotten something out of my own immortal life back then. Still I began to love him, and somehow I just knew that he would be something to me. That was before I actually knew he would cross my way some time. Things had changed, with the change of visions. Especially one:

_He was leaving them. Depression was in his eyes._

"_We have talked about this before, so you both know how I feel. I will try traveling by myself for a while", he told them. Peter nodded. _

"_We are going to miss you, my friend."_

_He told them both goodbye, Charlotte gave him a quick hug. Peter patted him on the shoulder and looked him in the eyes._

_Then he turned and darted away without looking back._

This vision was burned into my memory, and I could still remember every detail of it with perfect clarity. It kept my eyes focused on the fact that he was coming, and made me stop caring as much about my own life. It was the only thing that mattered to me.

Just one problem: I had no idea when.


	2. Gentleman

**Hey there forgot a disclaimer last time: I own nothing! Whatsoever. **

**I had this idea of how Alice and Jasper met, that I just wanted to get on paper. It's a long time since I've written it. Let me know what you think.**

**Chapter 1**

Gentleman

The night was dark and silent. I sat in the edge of a very small forest and looked at the sleeping suburb. Only a single light was still on in one of the houses, but there weren't any chance that they would be able to see me. Even though the moonlight shone on me and lightened op my pale skin, it wouldn't be possible for human eyes to separate me from the trees from this distance. I sighed and looked up at the sky; it was clear and cloudless, but that was going to change soon. I had seen a storm coming up; maybe today, maybe tomorrow, I wasn't sure.

Frankly, I shouldn't be here. The point where I sat was about hours away from Philadelphia, the city that I knew he was heading towards. I just didn't have much clue of when, but I had a feeling that it might be soon. Just for that reason I should stay in town, so I had a better chance of finding him, but at the moment I really appreciated the silence out here. The main reason though, was that I had been in a serious need for hunting. When I was among people I had to keep my thirst effectively away, otherwise the presence of humans happened to be very painful.

It wouldn't take me long to get there anyway, which was good since I didn't like being far away, when I was so sure that he was coming. And I was. Hadn't I seen him in my head so many times? Watching him every time he changed his mind? I had stopped counting the visions many years ago, but I never stopped thinking about him. Neither did I stop enjoying the sight of him, as he walked by in my head.

This was nearly the only thing I thought about these days, and the only thing that kept me from insanity. I couldn't precisely remember when I saw him the first time, because I was so used to seeing him now, though it never failed to excite me. But one thing was for sure: If I hadn't seen him back then, I probably would be all out of control now, and not knowing what to do with myself. The thought that I might run into him sooner or later kept me thinking straight.

Unfortunately it had been quite a while now, but I had to patient... I didn't like the sound of that word at the moment.

Patience was a common thing for vampires, though. When you have forever to think, you quickly learn to think more thoroughly, weighting every detail and consider every possibility there might be, just because you have the time. I didn't have any human memories to compare with, since I couldn't remember any of it, but I had watched a lot of humans. Their behavior evidently showed me that they were sort of running on a slower frequency than vampires. They didn't seem to _think_ as much about everything as we did.

But right now just thinking and waiting was very _hard_, just because I was so obsessed with the thought that he was coming soon. It was unbearable to wait for him when I knew he was so close. I was dying to see him in real life, not just through my mind. I _was_ going crazy after all. I had to think of something to make the waiting time acceptable. Hunting didn't kill many hours.

The other thing that took up a lot of space in my mind was this Cullen family, who I had seen in my visions a lot too. They sort of helped me keeping in control of myself too, or more likely the _sight_ of them did. They were different from all the other vampires I'd heard of; they weren't exactly a coven – which also was unusual – but a family, and this father figure, Carlisle Cullen, had a whole new perspective on our kind's survival that I had ever seen anyone having before. He called him and his family vegetarians, because they only drink animal blood. I had seen him explain this to the newborn Emmet in a vision long time ago. He had said something like: "This way we get to be a part of the human world without denying what we are to ourselves. When you only hunt animals, you don't have to be a monster." That was exactly what I wanted: not to be a human-hunting monster. I had thought a lot about his words at that time and I still did. Soon I would join his family. That idea made me smile too once in a while. I was really looking forward to take part in that life, but right now my first priority was something else. I haven't been wandering around here for days just to change my mind now.

_It was raining. He followed the river, carefully out of sight of any human as he ran. The scene blurred and he was suddenly inside town, looking around. Buildings where lined up on each side and the rain was still falling from the sky. He ducked into a small diner to avoid the storm. _

A huge smile spread across my face. I knew it. This vision had just proved to me, that I was right that he would enter the city some time, and now I knew it possibly would be soon, because of the clarity. It was around noon, and the rain had already started falling lightly from the grayish sky. I had decided last night, to stay around the forest, because it wouldn't make any difference in this at this short distance, but now I had to get to the town quickly. Philadelphia was a very large city and I didn't have much time to find the small diner I had seen in the vision. This was going to be difficult, and I regretted the decision that had made me stay here. I sighed and tried not to think about anything unpleasant about my plan.

Instead I got on my feet and started running towards the city.

In a car at medium speed, this would take approximately an hour, but at this uneven surface I would be much faster than that. I just had to slow when I got closer, though, so that no one would see me. Moving that fast wasn't really human, and I had to act like them whenever they were present. Acting human had become easier over time, but it was still a bit of a challenge sometimes. I sure was outstanding no matter what I did, because of the attraction and beauty that humans always reacted to. I had experienced that before.

It was a shame that I couldn't remember anything of my own human life. Some memories of how to act would have been helpful, but it was as if I had never been human. My previous life was just like this big black hole, swallowing everything even the beginning of my immortal life. My newborn years were all gone. I didn't even know who changed me and why they did it. This could maybe have been good memories – some of them, I had heard from others that the changing part was not a pleasant experience – and I often wondered why I couldn't remember. I was hoping that maybe Carlisle would have a theory. He seemed to have an explanation or at least a guess to everything. Maybe that was why he was such a natural father figure.

He had also been the one to change them all. Even when the girl, Rosalie, brought a dying man to Carlisle, she had told him, that she wouldn't do it herself, because she was afraid to do something wrong. I had been very impressed when I saw that. After that first time I hadn't seen much of this new Emmet. I was more attuned to the others, especially Carlisle. I was very much hoping to meet him personally soon.

The rain was gaining strength as I reached the city. I decided to follow the river a bit, then maybe I would be able to recognize something from the vision. Besides I could run at _my_ speed without being seen. There weren't really many people at the time; they were probably all hiding from the storm. The wind speed was increasing too.

I stopped and smiled smugly to myself; I had just recognized the street. I started walking towards it and followed it until a small diner appeared on the corner of the next street. I hurried over there, now careful not the run too fast, and entered it. It was dark in there and almost half-emptied. Some of them turned their head to look as I walked through the door and stared for a long moment, before they turned their back on me again. A single one kept starring, and I send him a quick, faint smile, before I looked away. He could still feel his eyes on my back, and tried not to pay attention.

It ached a little in my throat, but to my luck I couldn't smell them as much as I had feared. The smell of cooking and some alcohol blocked the scents of the humans.

I placed myself in a stool at the counter, and sighed silently. Left was only waiting.

"Hello beautiful, can I get you anything?" the bartender asked, looking at me with a friendly smile and his green eyes full of curiosity and adoration. He was a middle-aged man, a bit overweighting and bald from shaving.

"Just a glass of water, please", I said to be polite and responded his smile. He eyes lingered at my face a few seconds, he then blinked, shook his head slightly and turned to find me a glass. In the corner of the diner I could hear two young men discussing me eagerly. I was usually hard to irritate, but having to listen to them talk about me that way – of course they didn't know that I could hear them from this distance – put together with all the impatience made me feel a little annoyed. Though I hid it well.

"Here you are, miss", said the bartender, handing me the glass. I told him thanks and took it, careful not to touch him. The coldness of my skin might make him too curious.

Minutes ticked by, the bartender went to take some orders, but threw some quick glances at me once in a while. Every time I saw him watching me he just smiled and looked away again. I pretended to drink the water. After a while he turned to me hesitantly.

"Can I ask you something, miss?" He asked, and I nodded friendly, "What brings you here, to my diner at this time? Shouldn't you be home, with this horrible weather going on?" I knew why he asked; I didn't really match the types of people sitting here.

"I'm hoping to meet someone soon", I told him. He nodded and kept smiling kindly at me. He didn't seem to have anything against my presence at all, I thought to myself, amused.

Hours ticked by while I sat waiting. Only one time did I leave my seat to visit the bathroom. A human thing. When I came back the bartender stood at the counter at exactly the same spot where the high stool I had been sitting on was placed, as if he was keeping it for me. I chuckled once, amused by his overwhelming kindness and jumped up. Once in a while he asked me some casual questions about the storm, still racing outside then spoke to another customer, still gazing in my direction when he thought I wasn't looking.

Then the door opened. I smiled with a mixed feeling of relief, happiness and excitement.

He entered the diner, still standing in the doorway, and looked directly at me. I could see him so clearly even through the half-dark diner, and it was nothing like my visions at all. It was him, but ten times as real. He kept looking at my face without moving, as I studied him, watching every feature. Scars were very dominant on his jaw and neck. Battle scars from his numberless fights against newborn armies. Scars from the venomous teeth of a wide number of fierce, dangerous, newborn vampires. All of them so visible, but he was still beautiful; the pale white skin, his muscled, steady posture, his deep, amber eyes, his short, curly, bronze hair… I couldn't help smiling even more.

I jumped down from my seat, and started walking towards him. He stiffened a little, like he was about to sink into a crouch, unsure what else to do, but my expression must have told him that it wasn't necessary. He must have sensed that my emotions didn't invite him to a fight.

"You've kept me waiting a long time", I said.

He seemed to not really know how to react. He just bowed his head like the gentleman he was and said: "I'm sorry, ma'am." His deep, steady voice wasn't either anything like it sounded in my head through the visions. The smile just got wider as I reached my hand out for him. He took it without hesitation. He was still looking like he wasn't sure what to do, but seemed a little more comfortable, his eyes locked on my face. I stepped a little closer. I didn't care about people staring at us from all sides, which I was sure they did, especially the kind bartender, who I had guessed thought really bad about my visitor for keeping me waiting so long.

"I'm Alice", I told him. Just because I knew all about him, didn't mean it was the same the other way around.

"And I am Jasper Whitlock", he introduced. His voice was calm, and sounded so peaceful, so mesmerizing to me.

"I know", I smiled and then added, "I know very much about you, Jasper. But there is plenty of time for explanations."

That seemed to make sense to him, because he immediately shut his mouth again. Instead he just nodded once, his eyes carefully studying every detail in my face, but I didn't follow his gaze. I just watched his part frightening, part dazzling face, as he scanned me, his expression changing from wariness to delight. His hand was still around mine and I could feel the softness of his palm. With one fingertip I stroked his skin. The skin became a little rough where another scar was placed I noticed without really caring for that detail.

His eyes moved back to mine and we met each others gaze. I was sure a lot of people cringed away from him, when they saw his ravaged face from a close distance, but I was able to see behind that. To look right into his eyes and find the Jasper I had been waiting for so long.

With his free hand he reached for my face, letting the fingertips run down my cheek. I heard my own breathing get a little uneven as I felt his touch and I almost lost track of where I was. I was only able to, only _wanted_ to focus on him.

My smile had moved to my eyes, I didn't dare to make any movement in my face. I could see the smile in his eyes too, and I was sure that our emotions matched in this moment. This wasn't like anything I had felt before. I was sure it had been love at first vision, now proved. For Jasper's course he would have to deal with first sight.


	3. Accident

**Dislcaimer: Still owns nothing**

**Chapter 2**

Accident

"So tell me about those Cullens then. What is this special thing about them?" Jasper asked.

We had been running for many hours already, heading in a north-west direction. The night had come quickly and it had been dark for hours, but it didn't bother our sights. Cheerfully I had told him that I had seen the Cullens in my visions and that I wanted to live with them and learn to live the way he did. Jasper seemed to like the idea, but hadn't asked further about them then, he had other things on his mind, which he had asked me first.

His first question had been about how I knew all this about him and even had known that he was coming. I had told him all about my talent; about seeing the future. Of course I hadn't been a hundred percent sure of him, because my visions were subjective after all. They would change whenever the target changed his mind.

I told him that I had watched him for least a decade, and therefore knew a lot about his past as an officer in a vampire army controlled by a vampire called Maria. The same one who had changed him in the first place.

I also told him that I knew that he was gifted too, that he could control emotions in some way. This time he had some explanation for me:

"I can make people – vampires as well as humans and other creatures – feel the exact way I want them to. It was very useful against the newborn armies, and part of the reason that Maria and her friends decided to include me in their army in the first place.

"What you don't see is that other people's emotions affect _me_ very intensely, because of my talent. I can read a lot of them, but I have difficulties with you because I haven't ever felt that kind of emotions before my entire existence", he told me and his mouth had twisted into a faint smile. That picture had distracted me a lot.

The next question he asked was about what I had been doing, while waiting for him. With a grin I told him about how I had spent a lot of time focusing on what _he_ had been doing. Beside that I had been practicing the Cullen's lifestyle, and met some vampire nomads, that I had followed for a few months. But every time, after a while, I had decided to travel on my own, because it was easier to try find him when I wasn't dependent on others.

This led him to his question about the Cullen family, which I answered with eagerness.

"First of all they are different because they are more like a family than a coven", I explained, "they are five: There is the father, Carlisle, who created them all, his partner Esme, a guy called Edward – he was the first Carlisle changed – and the couple Rosalie and Emmet. They call themselves vegetarians because they live on a special diet: They only hunt animals, never humans – I've never seen anything like that before. They spend time among humans too, though they live outside the town. And this Edward he is gifted too, he can read _minds_ – a really interesting talent – I've seen them talk about it in my visions. And Esme seems so nice and caring, and Carlisle, he's a doctor, he is a vampire who actually safes lives! And … Why are you laughing?" I stopped my speech to stare at Jasper, who chuckled loudly. The bass sound it made, was truly nice listening to. He hadn't laughed much in the time we had known each other in real life. Always so solemn. Spending a century fighting and killing does that to you, I guessed.

"You know, Alice, even for a vampire you speak _very_ fast. I have never heard anyone speak quite so enthusiastic. It's nice", he said and smiled again. It made me smile too. He then added: "Those Cullens sound very interesting. I'm looking forward to meet them. And to try live the way they do." I knew this too. Jasper had always lived on human blood even though it depressed him to kill all the time, but that was the only way of surviving he had been taught from Maria.

There was a little pause then he spoke again: "How did you manage to stop hunting humans?" He suddenly seemed very curious. I knew how sad he had gotten every time he hunted, and I guessed it was still like that. He couldn't help it though; it was addiction to him.

"It's hard to remember how it was like, when I first started. I don't remember tasting human blood so much, though I'm sure I lived on nothing else in my newborn years, but I do remember that the taste of animal blood wasn't as appetizing. I got used to it over time though", I answered.

"Doesn't human blood bother you at all?" He continued, frowning, sounding almost desperate to find out how I managed it. His dark eyes watched me intensely.

"Of course it does. It's still hard for me to resist when I smell it. It takes a lot of will and self-discipline to keep yourself from having a taste", I told him. He didn't like my answer, but I didn't want to lie to him, he was going to figure it out anyway.

We ran in silence again, Jasper wrapped up in thoughts. The new lifestyle I was planning for the both of us, was going to extremely difficult for him, though I knew he would do his best. He wanted so desperately to stop killing people, to end his depression. I could already see an improvement in his mood, from the moment we met, but as soon as we got to the Cullens the better.

I turned my head to look at him. He was still completely preoccupied, and I smiled to myself. The silence didn't annoy me, though I had so much more to say to him – I had only been with him for twenty-four hours after all – but my patience had returned. It was so natural to have him beside me, like he had always been there, and we had forever to talk. Just the presence of him calmed me. Inhaling his soft, sweet scent cooled down my restlessness and made me draw a happy sigh.

I reached out, took his hand, and he squeezed it still staring thoughtfully into space. It wouldn't bother me to travel for a long time, if just he would be with me.

We still weren't sure where to go, but in a north-west direction and away from sunny places. They sure wouldn't be there. It would be difficult for them to keep the secret, if they would have to be aware of the sun everyday. Skin gleaming like diamonds sure would drag a lot of attention.

_Carlisle was on his way to an emergency. He had taken the car, and followed a big road at high speed. He raced by a sign, reading Rapid City. The scene blurred and vanished._

"Alice? Alice!" Jasper voice was alarmed. I had suddenly stopped, when the vision interrupted and since he had never seen me do that before, I couldn't blame him for reacting quite as exaggerated as he did. I blinked and my mind went back to the edge of a forest where we were standing. I smiled smugly. Jasper's hand stroked my cheek and I forgot what I was about to say.

"What happened, Alice?" He asked, the concern a little faded, now that I seemed conscious, but still enough to rip me out of my trance.

"Oh, I just had a vision. About Carlisle driving to some place called Rapid City. Isn't that in South Dakota?" I asked.

"Yes, I think it is. So they are in South Dakota then?" He sounded just as smug as I felt.

"I believe so." This was good. Now we knew where to go.

"That should take about two weeks from here. Maybe a little less if we are very fast", Jasper said in an expectant voice, and I nodded, feeling very excited.

"Sounds good."

All of a sudden we heard a cry of pain from two hikers – on a very-early-in-the-morning adventure – we hadn't paid attention to before. One of them was picking up a jack knife, the other one looking shocked at his hand. Blood was flowing out of the wound, and dripping on the ground. I didn't care how the hiker had wounded himself; I just looked at Jasper's expressionless dark eyes. We hadn't had a chance to hunt yet.

The smell of the blood reached us in a tenth of a second, smelling so unbelievably delicious, that it make me flinch. The pain in my throat burned like flames, punishing me for denying myself the taste of his incredibly appetizing blood.

It was too much for Jasper to handle. He was on them in a second; they didn't even have a chance to scream. I knew I wouldn't be able to stop him, so I just looked away, using all my self-control to stay where I were and fight the burning pain, ripping up my throat. I tried to hold my breath and stay calm, but I had already inhaled a lot of the scent. So hard to resist.

Jasper was skilled, of course. He had finished one of them very quickly, and turned to look at me, now a little more focused, when some of the thirst was gone. The other lay dead on the ground, because Jasper had snapped his neck, but the body was bleeding and it smelled dangerously tasty. The glowing flames were torturing my throat and I didn't know how much longer I could stand the pain. And I couldn't move.

"Get … me … away … from here!" I whispered through my teeth. Jasper reacted at once, I could see in his agonized expression that he was using all his regained self-control to drag himself away from the other dead hiker, and came towards me. He grasped my arm and pulled me with him as he started running into the forest, away from the dead bodies. Half-conscious I sped up and followed.

We ran a long time without a word. I was getting in control of myself again and the pain had faded a little. I would have been smugly aware of the fact that I _had_ resisted, if I wasn't so worried about Jasper. The sight of the agony and depression in his now crimson eyes had burned itself stuck inside my head. I felt so sorry for him, and I was hoping he was getting that through my emotions, that he surely was trying to read right now.

He slowed down and I did as well, then he stopped. We where deep inside the forest now, and it was almost black except for the top of the woods, where a little light slit through. I leaned against a tree, watching him carefully. I inhaled his sweet scent to calm myself entirely and it worked. Or maybe he was cheating by using his emotion-control. I wished he could use that on himself too, he looked so much in pain.

"I'm so sorry. I couldn't control myself, the blood…" he started but trailed off, unable to finish.

"It's okay, Jasper. I know how hard it is for you", I said serenely. He, though, couldn't relax and even though his body was completely motionless his eyes wandered everywhere. Then they found mine, showing me the anger and anguish he felt. I say a hint of self-loathing too, and I winced a little at the sight. I would have ignore that, though. Show him, that his actions didn't matter.

"You don't seem upset at all", he noted. And he was right; I wasn't. It was over, and nothing bad happened, apart from Jasper's old depression gaining a little strength. Which was the only thing I could worry about; there wasn't room enough in my head to contain my own pain too. I just wanted him to calm again.

"I'm not. And I don't blame you. Just because you couldn't resist this time, doesn't mean it's going to be like that forever" I sent him a tiny smile. He wasn't able to return it, but some of the pain had left his eyes. I looked deep into them. Though his eye color had changed from dark amber to blood red, I could still see _my_ Jasper behind them. His gaze was so intense, and so mesmerizing even through the tension. This was my favorite thing about him. His muscled, strong body, his golden, curly hair, his beautiful face, despite the scars, all so pleasant to look at, but still nothing compared to his eyes, and the light in them. I could look into them forever and it didn't matter to me which color they were.

"Your emotions doesn't make sense to me", he murmured, still holding my gaze, "You just saw me acting like the monster you are trying so hard to avoid being."

"I know you didn't do anything on purpose", I insisted in a low voice, almost a whisper. I knew he would see the smile in my eyes.

"Why do you look at me like that?"

"I love you", I said, beaming at him. I felt good to finally say it aloud. A smile appeared on his face too, in respond, and his hand touched my cheek, stroking it stronger than before. He was out of words, but it didn't matter. I didn't need an emotion-reading talent to know he felt the same. He was about so say something, but I had already predicted what he would say and answered his unspoken question:

"And we do have plenty of time to do something about your hunting habits."

"I will do my best, but I don't know how to. I don't even know how you do it", he mumbled.

"Decades of practice", I grinned. My sudden cheerful mood made it hard for him to be upset, and he chuckled quietly. A brief laughter, but it was there.

"Um, I saw a small cottage while we where… running. We could stay there for some hours?" He suggested. Clearly he needed a peaceful break. I was surprised that he had paid attention to his surroundings at all, he had been so frustrated.

"Sounds good, let's go find it." I kissed him on the cheek and danced ahead. His eyes lightened even more as he followed.


	4. Cloud Nine

**Disclaimer: You guessed it, all imaginary credit goes to Meyer**

**Chapter 3**

Cloud Nine

"Ladies first", Jasper said and made a gesture towards to door of the small cottage. Though he was still a bit tense, he managed to send me a crooked smile.

"Aren't you supposed to check if there's any danger inside?" I asked, chuckled and then opened the door before he could answer. The inside was in a well shape, despite the fact that it probably hadn't been used for a long time. It was only one room, walls, ceiling and floor were all in wood, and a single window was placed on the opposite site of the door. Two chairs where placed around a small table and a bed was to find in the corner. I assumed that the light didn't work, but didn't bother to check. The darkness only made everything different colors instead of shading the sight. I turned around to drag Jasper inside and he closed the door behind him. He took of the jacket that he was wearing and threw it over one of the chairs.

"This is a nice place", I said cheerfully. Jasper nodded, as he leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. I went to sit on the bed, and watched him for a couple of minutes. None of us moved an inch.

Jasper sighed and opened his eyes. He stared into space for a short second and then turned his head to look at me. There was something in his eyes I couldn't quite interpret. I winked him over and he came to sit on the bed beside me. I looked at him with question in my eyes.

"I feel quite odd", he said, and I opened my mouth to once again defend his behavior an hour ago, but he continued, "those feelings… the vibration of the emotions I get from you, they make me sort of anxious," I was about to interrupt him again, but he stopped me, "please don't misunderstand me, Alice. I couldn't be happier to have you than I am. But you must understand that completely new feelings affect me in a strange way. The first time I felt something entirely new, was when I saw Maria and her 'friends' the first time. Though I was only human at that time, the sight of their beautiful faces, the way they looked at me made me feel the danger. And now there is you. You are without any doubt the most beautiful person I have ever seen, counting every single vampire I have ever looked at. And those things you make me feel are so different from anything else… I don't have good experiences with changes" He eyes moved to the scars on his arm, and then he looked at me, probably to see how I reacted to his words.

Somehow this didn't surprise me much, but I was a difficult person to surprise after all. I couldn't believe though, that he would actually think something bad was going to come out of _this,_ but I wasn't angry with him for feeling that way. It wouldn't be hard to change his mind on that part.

"Do I really have to convince you that I'm not going to hurt you in any possible way?" I asked him teasingly, and he murmured something like "I can't help it" in respond. I chuckled and he looked up at me in surprise. Well, if my emotions couldn't tell him what he needed to know, I might as well just show him. I hesitated for a short second, then leaned towards him and touched my lips to his.

Very much against my will, I pulled away again to read his reaction. At first his face was expressionless, as if he was thinking of how to react on my kiss, but then his eyes lightened up in a whole new way, and he send me a dazzling smile, making my breathing uneven. He leaned slowly towards me and stopped a few inches from my face in a short hesitation. I could feel him breathing into my face. It stunned me in a thrilling way and I closed my eyes to fully appreciate it. Then our lips met again. His lips were so far the only parts on him that was completely scar-less and they were so soft against mine. My brain stopped working and I was only able to concentrate on this new, dizzying touch. I had looked forward to this exact moment for least a decade, and it reached my high expectations to perfection.

This was new for me too. The more he kissed me the more desire did I feel. I twisted a little closer to him, and let my hand stroke his neck and cheek, then let it run through his soft curls. He smiled through the kiss, then put his arms around my waist and pulled me into his lap, without leaving my lips for a second.

After a while – a minute, a second, an hour, I had no idea, I had completely lost track of time – he pulled a little away, as if he needed a short thinking-break. I knew well now that kissing and thinking wasn't easy at the same time. I opened my eyes to look at him. It was hard to believe that this was actually happening after waiting all these years. He was so beautiful, and he would still be, even if his whole face was completely covered in battle scars. He had opened his eyes too, he looked at me with a delighted expression, and I just smiled in respond. I let a finger run down his face, touching every scar on my way. He closed his eyes again and breathed a happy sigh. I leaned down to kiss him again, while my fingers continued down his neck and unbuttoned his shirt to feel his bare chest. No scars where to find here and his skin was soft as silk.

The need for more closeness became stronger as I touched his body, so I moved as close to him as possible and locked my arms around his neck. I felt his hand moving up my back and shoulder, to my neck, then my face. His sweet touch felt so appealing. I could feel the desire waving through his body; all the tension was completely gone. At this moment I couldn't really remember where the tension had come from in the first place, kissing Jasper made it impossible to think.

Desire and craving began to take over completely and the kissing became stronger. With a thrill I parted his lips slightly to feel his tongue and I felt the current run through his body when I did it. He followed me eagerly and this new kissing was too much for my brain to handle. It was as if my mind left my body. We soared away into cloud nine, leaving the cottage, the forest and everything else behind us.

We had spent many hours in the small cottage. Maybe too many, we needed to reach the Cullens soon after all, but I wasn't able to bother. It was already near noon, I guessed from the small beam of light reaching trough the window. We lay silent on the bed, as if we were sleeping. My head rested against his silky chest, and I could feel him breathing into my hair. The scent of him was dizzying at this moment and I wasn't sure if I wanted to move ever again. I still couldn't believe how _natural_ the presence of my Jasper felt and it thrilled me to think about the past hours we had spent in this cottage. That memory was going to keep me alive forever.

Jasper moved his arm from under his head down to me and stroked my arm, as if he had heard what I was thinking, which was almost true in some way since he could read my emotions as if there were his own. All the confusion about my emotions that he had told me about before seemed to be entirely gone. I could have sworn that he could have read my mind during those hours, if there had been anything to read. I hadn't really thought that much about anything.

Jasper played with a strand of my short, black hair then his hand moved back across my face, and lay still. I breathed a sigh of pure happiness.

"Alice?"

"Mmm?" Was all I could manage to say.

"I love you too, you know." I smiled. I didn't say anything; I knew he didn't have problems interpreting my responding feelings this time. Instead I stretched up my head to kiss his throat, and stayed there. He wrapped his arms around me and we were silent again for a couple of minutes.

"Alice?"

"Yes?" I breathed.

"I want to try soon. Hunting like vegetarians, I mean."

"We can start next time you get thirsty if you want?"

"Yes." Silence again. A noisy silence, I could almost hear him think about his own words. And I knew that a part of him wanted us to move now, though the other wanted to stay right here with me and never move again. No emotion-talent needed to figure that out, I knew him too well for that to be necessary.

"Hm, we should get going soon", he said. I wished I hadn't been right this time.

"Yes, we should", I agreed and got up slowly. Even though I wanted so badly to stay for a moment more, I couldn't make myself hold Jasper here against his will – or a part of his will at least. He still had an addiction to fight.

We both got up and were ready to go in a few seconds. Jasper grabbed his jacket on the chair then he stopped, and sighed as if he was deciding something important. A vision was about to show me his decision, when he turned around to me, bent down and kissed me. I smiled stunned through the kiss, and pulled him closer. I was about to give in completely, when he pulled away again. Annoyingly wise of him. Instead I just beamed up at him and danced out of the door that he held open for me.

We still had a long way to go so without further words we started running. First we found the place were the hikers had been, to figure out the right track. Then, without mentioning the memory of the place, we located it and changed to the right direction.

Silence came upon us again as we ran. Hours went by. I could feel that Jasper was in a hurry to get the Cullen's place soon. Though we could start his diet on our own, I thought to myself that it might be something more. He wanted to see with his own eyes how that the existence of peaceful, vegetarian vampires was possible, not that he didn't trust my word. I couldn't blame him for finding it hard to believe, though. It had been hard for me too, it was _very_ unusual after all, but I had had my visions to convince me. Personally, I was looking forward to have people around me, and especially this family. And it wasn't like Jasper and I wouldn't get time to be just the two of us. The others – except Edward of course – were couples too, they would understand that. Besides, I had seen that Esme had built a house for Rosalie and Emmet, so they had a lot of privacy. We would build one for ourselves it that would be necessary.

While we ran, I made sure to look for any sign of humans coming our way. Though Jaspers eyes were still bright red, which meant he wasn't thirsty yet, I didn't want him to be distracted by human scents.

"How do they all feel about the vegetarian diet?" Jasper suddenly asked, "The Cullens, I mean. I can guess that Carlisle likes it, but what about the rest?"

"Well, they all seem okay with it. Though all of them have slipped sometimes, and tasted human blood, oh, except Rosalie. But she _has_ killed humans. But they're all trying their best to live the vegetarian style. Not that different from you", I told him, adding the last part with a smile. He _was_ going to try. I knew it, I had _seen_ it already. Just a tiny glimpse, but enough to assure me.

"You can't say that. I have been living on nothing but human blood in almost a century", he said. He suddenly seemed upset, though he tried to keep his voice calm.

"Yes, I can say that, and I mean it. If you had had the option to not kill, you would have taken it."

"I was in the army. I _joined_ the army and in armies, you kill", he insisted, a dark expression shading his beautiful face.

"You joined the human army", I reminded him. "You were forced into Maria's." I met his tense gaze. Why did he have to take all this on himself? I knew he was still a military man inside, and because of that he hated loosing the self-discipline by hunting humans whether he wanted or not. But why blame himself for that part? No wonder he got depressed so fast, when he thought it all was his entire fault. I knew the reason why his depression was there, I just couldn't figure out why he couldn't let it go now that his diet was changing soon. And I couldn't stand him being depressed. I had been watching that for way too many years already.

He sighed and nodded slowly.

"True, but I wished I had known another way to live than with the newborn army. If only Peter and Charlotte had found each other earlier, then I would have left earlier too along with them. Maybe I would have run into you earlier, too", he said, smiling a bit at the last sentence. I got the feeling that he wanted to change the subject.

"Maybe", I agreed, letting it go. I smiled back at him and took his outstretched hand. His palm felt soft as he held my hand. He stroked it with a finger; the touch was compelling. I could feel the intensity he put in this contact. Cloud nine was calling for me. Besides I wanted him to think of something else. I slowed down a little, and then stopped, forcing him to stop too. He looked at me, with a questioning expression on his face. I didn't answer, I just looked into his sparkling eyes for a long moment, just watched the facets in the shining crimson iris, and he began to understand.

"Alice, we need to move…" he began, but I pressed one finger against his lips, to make him stop talking. He fought a smile.

"Just a short moment. I need you to be at ease", I said, and he surrendered, the smile breaking through. One tiny moment wasn't a very long time in vampire world. He chuckled at the sight of me. His hand was at my face again, caressing my cheek. With a huge smile on my face I locked my arms around his neck and stretched up to him in the same moment he bent down to me. I felt his breath reaching my face. Our lips touched, and the surrounding area disappeared…

We kissed for a long, blissful moment, and then went back to reality. With a beam I looked up at my Jasper, meeting his intense, mesmerizing gaze.

It was sort of funny to experience how a person could be so irresistible. When he looked me deep in the eyes I had a hard time focusing on anything else. When he touched my face I couldn't think straight. When he kissed me I didn't feel present at all. How was I ever going to focus on anything when he was this close?

I realized that I didn't really care. I was immortal after all, I would probably live forever, which meant that I had forever to do what I wanted in life. So what's the haste?


	5. Unappetizing

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**I hope you enjoyed the first chapters. As I said I wrote this a long time ago, but I would still love a comment or two if you feel like it. One can always improve her writing.**

**Chapter 4**

Unappetizing

The past days had gone by so quickly. Maybe because we were running so fast. We made sure always to stay out of sight of human eyes; we had run alongside the water and never close to cities. Actually we had crossed a city a single time, but Jasper had stayed in the edge, when I was there. I had carefully searched the future to see if this would cause any problems and to our – mostly my – luck, I couldn't find anything that would. That had cheered me up; I had been in seriously need of new clothes, wearing the same for more than two days didn't really suit my nature well, but I had had to live with it for some time while searching for Jasper. So when I had the chance to get some new to wear I took it. Jasper had accepted, and agreed to stay as far away from people as possible. Though he had admitted that he didn't like to stay that far away from me, I thought with a smile.

I had finished my visit quickly and we had continued our journey.

When we reached the north-eastern edge of Indiana, we had had to move around Chicago, away from the water. A city of that size would be a very bad idea to run into, we wouldn't be able move fast unless we stole a car and the massive presence of humans was too tempting at the moment. We both needed to hunt; I could feel the aching in my throat, when I thought of it too much. This lead to another good reason to move out of towns; we needed to find a proper place to hunt, and as vegetarians – or soon to be vegetarian – a city didn't fit into that category. A small, not too visited forest would be the best, but it wasn't easy to find around here.

The landscape had changed a little though. We had already reached some small parks and even forests, but all still too full of people.

We were also so close to the public that we couldn't run without dragging attention from everyone, so we ended up stealing a car anyway. Jasper had 'borrowed' one when we got a chance. I hadn't liked the idea of stealing, but Jasper had convinced me. "Say what you want, but it's a waste of time to drive all the way back to return it", Jasper had said, and when I couldn't find a good argument I had just agreed.

So at high speed we raced through the country and it was actually faster than running most of the time. At this speed we would get to the Cullens sooner than expected. I must admit I had never driven a car in my life – or in my vampire life at least, but I was a hundred percent sure that I hadn't in my human life either. All that considered it was a good thing that Jasper had. I reminded myself that I had to learn how to drive at some point.

The landscape flew by, as none of us was paying much attention to the speed limit. Things were getting a little tense, eyes were dark and we were thirsty.

Late in the evening we reached a bigger forest. And the best part: There was no one around at the moment.

A vision flickered in my head. _The deer flinching, Jasper catching it in a second…_

"Alice?" I looked up at him, the vision disappearing. He sighed. "It makes me anxious_, _when your face suddenly turns blank like that… a vision again?"

"Yes. This is the perfect place for us to hunt. Let's go", I smiled and jumped out of the car. He parked the car in the edge of the trees, and followed me into the dark forest.

As we got deeper into it, the instincts took over. Every detail became clear, not a single movement was made without both of us watching intensely. We moved fast again searching for the right scent, the scent of deer-blood, flowing in the veins of the oblivious animals.

Suddenly it was there. We turned, tracked it and found a small group of deer's standing in a little open space between the large, dark trees. They didn't hear our silent approach. I looked at Jasper for a second, and he returned the gaze. His dark eyes were focused and he nodded slowly. He was ready. He turned to lock his eyes on the deer's and sank slowly into a crouch.

After a seconds hesitation he jumped, and I followed.

I let the instincts guide me as I always did when hunting, and caught a deer before any of them had a chance to run. It didn't take much thought to hold it in a death grip and sink my teeth into the neck of the deer. Soon the blood started flowing and I drank. The taste wasn't awfully good, but there was life and energy in the warm liquid, and that I did enjoy.

In a few minutes the hunt was over. Wiped the last blood away from my lips and refocused on my surroundings. Filled up and with my head clear again, I turned to look at Jasper. Just as I expected his hunting skills worked quite good on animal hunting as well, and he was finished even before I was. At first I looked at his eyes: They weren't gold yet, like I knew mine would be by now, so apparently that would take some time, though I could spot a slight difference. Then I examined his expression carefully; he was calm now that he was full, but there was something on his mind that I couldn't guess, and it worried me. Immediately I searched the future to see if anything unexpected was coming. When I found nothing, I hurried to his side and looked at him with questioning eyes.

It seemed like he wouldn't tell me whatever bothered him. Something that could be shame crossed his face.

"What's wrong, Jasper?" I asked him and looked at him with an insisting gaze. He hesitated shortly, avoiding my eyes. I kept staring at his face, feeling a little impatient.

"It's just… the taste. It's quite unappetizing really. It doesn't… taste near as good as human blood", he said, looking embarrassed by his own words. I couldn't help laughing in relief.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to it soon", I assured him, still slightly chuckling. He looked at me, questioning my laughter with a confused gaze and I continued "you got me thinking that something was really wrong." He sent me a wry smile and I grinned back. I could see in his eyes that his good mood was coming back now that he had hunted, and he wasn't offended because I laughed at him, of course not, though he had been quite serious. I also saw a will in him to fight for this way of living despite the bad taste. He really wanted it, this great opportunity to not be a killer. The opportunity that he didn't know he had before a week ago. And the choice was made. Visions flickered by, confirming his decision to stick to this diet. I could see him hunting animals again in the future, and looking happy for the turn his hunting habits had taken. I got a short glimpse of his golden-colored irises.

He winced a little at the sight of my face, when the vision ran across my mind.

"You'll have to get used to _that_ soon, it's not going to go away", I teased.

"I'll try", he said, using the same teasing tone. His eyes lightened up, showing me exactly how pleased he was beneath the strange embarrassment and what was left of his depression and beneath everything he carried on the outside. I was breaking through his solemn façade. Maybe I could drag his good mood out for anyone else to see, or maybe not, but at least I had found it, like I had known from the very beginning that I would. I knew, though, that there was something in his eyes that only I would see, the part of him made only for me – my Jasper. That part, that special light in his star-like eyes, would only belong to me.

I realized that I had been staring into his eyes for a long time now; some times I got carried away so easily. It didn't seem to bother him though. He was gazing at my face with a delighted expression. A smile appeared on his lips, as well as in his eyes.

"You are beautiful", he said.

"You stole my line", I whispered, the teasing edge of my voice almost gone. He made faint chuckle, then kissed my hair and spoke again, now more focused: "We better get going. Hope we can find the car."

"Follow the smell of metal and fuel", I suggested, the joking tone reappearing. Of course he knew that already. He sent me one ironic gaze and started running, grasping my hand the same second to pull me with him. I kept pace with him eagerly.

It didn't take us long to find the car. It was parked in the edge of the trees, a little off the road we were following, just as we had left it. Jasper hadn't even bothered to take the keys out; there was no one nearby by this time of the day and Jasper would probably just steal a new car first time he got the chance anyway, though I wouldn't like it. But I had to admit that the car had been a good thing the past days.

We got in and Jasper turned on the engine, and seconds later we were racing ahead towards South Dakota.

"Now this might get complicated", I said, slightly amused. We had followed a bigger road and there were a lot more cars here than we had been used to. I had just predicted huge and chaotic traffic right ahead. But we were both in a good mood today. The edge of South Dakota was not far away.

"What might?" Jasper demanded but relaxed at the sound of my amusement.

"Traffic. Lots of it. Try turn here, then we might have a chance to avoid it", I said and he obeyed.

"Every driver should have someone like you", he said, amused. I smiled at him, but kept my thoughts on the future in search for the right road. The only annoying part of this was that we had to be aware of the speed limit. With supernatural senses we usually didn't needed to, because we had so much quicker reactions than any human. Unfortunately, the police probably wouldn't accept that explanation, if they caught us and it would drag too much attention anyway.

Another complication was the sun. The sun was supposed to come out of the cloud bag later today and we had to get past the worst traffic before that happened. We had to make sure not to be in risk of any sunlight, but with my very useful talent of predicting the location of the worst traffic, it should be no problem. As soon as we were away from town and cars, we could race ahead in the tempo we preferred.

While Jasper was driving, I wondered what it would be like to live with the Cullen family. I couldn't see anything yet, which was very frustrating. The only problem I could think of though would be whether or not Jasper could stick to his diet. Fortunately, their house was located a little out of town, so Jasper wouldn't be close to humans all the time. He was not ready for that yet. I wasn't entirely sure if I would be so myself, though I was definitely better prepared than Jasper. I didn't say it out loud, because he wouldn't like it much, but we both knew that we were going to face a lot of difficulties, because of his former habits. He would be the weak link for a long time and he would hate it. He would experience a serious lack of discipline and he would hate that too. Maybe he would slip one or two times, and he would definitely hate that, but he would have to live with it, regardless.

Taking his calm expression in consideration he didn't look like he was thinking much about it at the moment, as he sat in driver's seat with a relaxed posture, one hand on the wheel. He looked at road, though I knew he wasn't paying much attention to it. Now and then his eyes flickered to mine, then he smiled and turned to look at the road again. I kept watching his stunning face. I saw that he had a lot of scars in the hair line on the right side of his face, and was a little frightened by the mental picture of a group of newborns throwing themselves at him, like they must have done. I hadn't really realized how terrifying his former life must have been before now. How many dangers had he faced? I new about some of them because of my visions, but I hadn't enjoyed the show. I was not hard to guess why he liked this change of his life so much.

Suddenly he grinned.

"Almost there", he said and pointed at a sign, announcing that we were leaving Iowa and were crossing the border to South Dakota.

"Good, because the sun is going to shine in an hour or so. We're going to have to make a stop somewhere for a couple of hours, unless we want to get shone at", I reminded him. He nodded and increased the speed a little.

The sun was out of the cloud bag and shone brightly. Most people were outside enjoying the unusually good weather. We had found a small forest to hide in, pretending to be on a picnic, just ignoring the eating part. We had had to hide the car, in case someone would notice that it was stolen, so we had driven it as deep into the forest as we could get it. We were actually planning on just leaving it here. We had agreed that it would be a better idea, than driving it all the way to the Cullen's house. That would just cause them too much trouble.

So here we sat, Jasper leaning against a tree and me leaning against his shoulder with my eyes closed. We had been sitting like this for a long time I reckoned. If someone would pass by, which I doubted since everyone seemed to be out in the sunlight, they would think that we were sleeping. That of course wouldn't be the case.

We weren't entirely undisturbed though.

I predicted that a ball was coming right at us, and debated with myself whether I should react or just let it hit me, and by that keep the façade of sleeping. Then I saw that I wouldn't get the chance of either, because Jasper would decide to catch it and stopped bothering.

A minute later the actual ball came and Jasper caught it.

"Just throw it back to them. We won't risk any sunlight that way." And nobody will get a chance to see your reddish eyes, I thought without saying it out loud. Jasper just nodded – I guessed from the slight movement of his body – and threw the ball back to the human on his way to get it.

"Thanks", he yelled, sounding a little surprised and Jasper nodded at him. The boy walked back to his friends, chatting with them about us I could hear. I could also hear them complain about the clouds, which seemed to be covering the sun soon. Too bad for them, very good for us…

_They had sensed our arrival, and were standing before the house, Rosalie in the doorway. Carlisle and Esme were standing in front of her. They looked at us with mixed feelings as we walked towards them… _

I grinned smugly. The vision had been so clear; this must be happening soon. I even knew were they were.

I realized that I sat up straight, and that Jasper was staring at my face with a wary expression on his pale, beautiful face. He hadn't called my name to bring me back to reality this time, but he watched me carefully while waiting for me to say something.

"It was them. I saw the Cullens – or I saw three of them, the others must be away hunting or maybe in town", I said, and then added with a smirk: "And I know where they are. Wasn't there a map in the car?"

"I believe so. I will go get it right away", Jasper said and got up. I nodded at him and he turned to run into the forest to the place, where we had hidden the car.

The ball came flying again and landed a yard away. I got up to go pick it up, to prevent the boy from coming too close. It wouldn't harm anyone to be careful. Even in the shadows it would be possible for humans to spot the red shade of Jasper's eyes and he would be back in a very short while. So just in case, I picked up the ball and turned to throw it in the owner's direction.

"Here, it's my ball – Whoa…" The boy said and stopped as I looked at him. He was just a few yards away. I flashed a smile at him and threw the ball. He caught it awkwardly and tried to smile back.

"Thanks… Um, haven't seen you before. Hi, I'm Jason", he introduced and walked a little closer. From the corner of my eye I saw Jasper's approach, and apparently Jason saw him too. Judging from his expression and the fact that he suddenly froze, Jason didn't receive a very nice look from Jasper. He didn't come any closer and neither did Jasper.

"Nice to meet you, Jason", I said and smiled kindly, before I turned my back on him and danced back to Jasper, grinning at him.

"It's not nice to scare people. Did you find it?" I asked him. Behind me Jason walked slowly back to his friends with a slight sigh.

"Yes. Right here", he handed me the map. I took it and searched it. I quickly found the city I was looking fore, easy as it was to find with only one town in the nearby.

"There, Dupree. I'm pretty sure they live around that area, maybe a little more up here", I explained I ran my finger across the map a little north from the town of Dupree. There was an almost empty space, maybe some vegetation but not many houses. I perfect place for vampires to live.

"Then we have an almost exact location. And it seems like the clouds are coming back. Shall we leave?" He said with faintly hidden impatience, but I shook my head.

"Let's wait five minutes, it'll be safer", I said, smiling at his sudden eagerness.

So five minutes we waited and then left. It made us both indescribable impatient to walk at normal speed, but we followed the great river, that would almost run by the place where we expected the Cullen family to be living. This gave us a few chances of running, and we took them whenever we could.

The landscape was slowly changing from town to nothing but vegetation, to town, to vegetation again. I got the feeling that we were getting close. The vision of our approach was getting even clearer, and I could tell that Emmet and Edward were away hunting. I could also tell that they would be frightened by the sight of Jasper – or the sight of all his battle scars to be more precise – but that they would accept us. I was nearly exploding with excitement, as I took Jasper's hand and dragged him with me, as I started to run again.


	6. Home

**Disclaimer: Yup, owning nothing here.**

**Chapter 5**

Home

I gasped with excitement. In front of us the large house of the Cullen family appeared through the trees. The house stood in an open space, clear of trees, but surrounded by soft, green grass. There was a small road leading up to the garage. A tiny path lead further up to the front door of the great crème white house.

As I had predicted Carlisle, Esme and Rosalie, who were the only ones home, had already seen or heard us coming and were standing in front of the house with Rosalie in the doorway, just like in my visions. Like Jasper they were all much prettier in real life. Especially Rosalie was unbelievably beautiful, even for a vampire. Her parents were both almost as beautiful, as they stood there with their pale faces in contrast to the dull light of the evening. Carlisle had his arm around Esme's waist and they all looked at us with tense expressions, Esme also a little curious, as we walked towards them.

I shot a quick glance at Jasper, who looked a little anxious too. Of course he wouldn't be as sure that this would work out easy and trouble free, as I was, though I had told him it would. I smiled at him and looked back at the Cullen family. When we reached the path leading up the front door, we stopped. Three pairs of liquid, golden eyes followed our every movement, lingering more on Jasper's face than mine. Probably watching his battle scars and reddish, amber eyes.

"They feel very tense at the sight of me", he told me, his voice so low that it wouldn't be possible for any of the Cullen's to hear us.

"I know, but don't worry. Everything will be fine", I told him and took a small step forward, while thinking of how to start. I had been so filled up with excitement and was so convinced that this would work out perfectly, that I had forgotten to think about what to say to them. Would it be too weird to use their first names? It would definitely not sound good to call them 'Cullen's'. 'Hello Cullen's, how are you?' Bad idea. Since Carlisle was the creator and the farther, I decided to talk directly to him at first in a polite tone.

"Hello, Dr. Cullen, I'm Alice and this is Jasper", I said and made a gesture towards Jasper who nodded and flashed a polite smile. Before they had a chance to say anything, I continued "we are 'vegetarians' just like you, and we wondered, if we could be a part of your family? Then maybe we could learn to live the way you do."

Carlisle's expression changed from anxiety to surprise. Maybe that was too straightforward after all. Esme looked at us with a scrutinizing gaze and then turned to Carlisle. She whispered something to him, too low for us to hear. Carlisle nodded and turned to us.

"That is quite interesting, but first I must ask, where do you know us from? I haven't seen you before. Are you maybe friends of the Denali coven?" He asked in a calm, curious voice. Of course he wanted to know, and I figured that just telling them everything would be the best way to go.

"No, we don't know any Denali coven. I'm gifted; I can see the future, or at least a version of it. That's how I found out about you, and your family. I know that you work as a doctor in Dupree, and this is your wife Esme, which you created yourself, as you did with Rosalie and also Emmet and Edward, who must be away hunting, am I right?"

"Yes… It is exactly right. So I can guess, that this is the way you found out about our unusual lifestyle?" Carlisle asked, even more surprised and also sounding a little impressed.

"Yes", I smiled warmly at him, "I saw how well it was working for you and tried myself. When I found Jasper a short time ago, he tried too." Carlisle nodded and smiled. He already seemed entirely convinced that we meant no harm. Or me at least, none of them seemed so sure about Jasper yet. Rosalie appeared beside Carlisle and whispered to him a little too loud:

"Are we sure _he_ can be trusted? He looks like he just stepped out of a war." Jasper heard it too, but he had probably read her doubt in her emotions anyway. He stepped up beside me, and looked Carlisle in the eye before he turned to Rosalie.

"You are right, Rosalie, I have stepped out of a war, many wars in fact, but it has been years. I was created to fight in an army, but I put that behind me, when I left my creator and her army. I know what you are thinking about me, because of the way I look, but what the scars don't tell you are that I left that place for the same reason that you are not killing humans: I hate the idea of being a monster. You have no idea of what a depression it gave me to kill, but that was the only way of living I was taught. When I met Alice and she told me about this, you can't imagine how relieved I was", Jasper finished abruptly like he was surprised with himself that he had spoken.

"You must have been glad to find Alice then", Esme said, speaking for the first time, and not at all sounding like she was talking to a couple of strangers.

"Yes. She has made all the difference to me", Jasper agreed in a soft voice and looked down at me. I beamed at him and took his hand. Esme followed the action and smiled. The way she looked at us, really made her look like the caring mother she was, and I knew she had accepted us already.

Carlisle smiled too and looked down at Esme, the way a man looks at his only true love. They both fully understood the bond between me and Jasper. If they didn't accept him, I wouldn't even consider staying. It didn't matter though, because I knew they would. Even Rosalie looked a little more convinced after Jasper's speech, and she looked a bit embarrassed too.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you… Jasper", she said. Jasper just nodded and smiled a bit. Everyone seemed to have accepted each other. I stared at the house probably looking like a child staring at Christmas presents.

"So which room can we move into?" I couldn't help asking.

"Why don't we go inside?" Carlisle asked and made a gesture towards the door.

"Thanks Carlisle", I said. He smiled at me as we walked up to them in now moving in vampire speed, which felt more normal to all of us. I realized that I had forgotten to use the polite phrase 'Dr. Cullen', but he didn't seem to mind.

"Let me show you the house, while we are waiting for the boys to come home", Esme said, and guided us through the hallway to the living room. It had the same light color as outside. In the room I found a big dinner table – probably _not_ used very much – a set of sofa's and the newest kind of television. One in color. Instead of the wall pointing north there were windows from ceiling to floor, revealing an amazing view.

"Wow, you have such a beautiful home", I said in wonder and Esme smiled brightly.

"Thank you, Alice. I have designed a lot of the architecture myself", she announced proudly. She showed us the kitchen quickly, which she hadn't paid as much attention too, as the rest, because it was never used. Then she dragged us upstairs to show us the rest, looking almost as excited as I felt. Jasper followed in silence, though with a tiny smile on his lips. She showed us Carlisle's office, their bedroom and Rosalie and Emmet's room, all with small comment's on her ideas while designing it and I listened eagerly.

"… and I liked the idea of the light and blue colors as you see…", "… Though Rosalie and Emmet's room aren't used that often. I built them a small cottage in the forest right behind the house. They are so lost in each other that they sometimes forget everything around them. It can be a little disturbing to have to watch, or listening to, if you understand what I mean?" Esme said with a poor hidden laugh and I chuckled along with her.

"I can Imagine", I said, and silently thanked God or whoever was in control up there, that _that_ kind of actions didn't show up in my head.

"Here is room for…"

"Wow", I interrupted. The room was beautiful. A wall half-separated the room in two, making the light leave a corner in the shadows. Instead of the wall opposite the door there were windows from floor to ceiling, just like in the living room, and the _view outside_… It was even more unbelievable from up here. I could see the small field of their backyard, and the trees of the forest, the crowns now glowing in faint moonlight – the night had suddenly become cloudless.

I knew I had found the right place to live. Unfortunately someone owned this exact place.

"So this is Edwards room… you like it, I see?" Esme said.

"Yes. It's so beautiful, Esme, you are a true artist", I said in a sad voice. I wanted to live right here! This was perfect.

"You sound unhappy, Alice?" She said, and looked at me with motherly concern.

"I wished I lived here. In this room", I admitted, and turned to Esme with a pleading look. She thought about it for a while.

"I'm sure Edward won't mind to move to another. He can get the room that we are not using. Then he can get a piano in there, he loves to play", Esme said and smiled at me. I loved Esme already.

"That's so nice of you. What do you think, Jasper?" I asked turning around to face him. He shrugged.

"Every room in this house would be perfect for me. As long as it's the same one that you are living in", he answered with a crooked smile and stroked my cheek. I loved him more. I forgot that we were not alone and stretched up to kiss him. My happiness was hard to hide. I had gotten everything I wanted within a month – was it really possible to be so lucky? Apparently.

Then I suddenly remembered what Esme had just said about behaving ourselves as couples and that she was standing right beside us, so I pulled away again, beaming with joy.

"Sorry, I will behave myself from now on", I said, and Esme laughed.

"Don't worry about it, sweetie. But the boys are going to be here soon, so we better start moving the furniture now, and get started on your rooms, so Edward won't have to wait too long. You can help me design it. And you too, Jasper, if you want", she said cheerful.

"I will leave it to you two. I don't know much about architecture", Jasper just said.

"I would love too! And Edward and Emmet will be home in one and a half hour" I said, after searching the future. Esme looked at me with wonder.

"It's a very useful gift you have. Well, shall we?"

Jasper agreed to help moving the furniture, so it didn't take more than a couple of minutes. After that Esme and I started making ideas for both Jasper's and my room, and Edward's. Jasper went downstairs to talk to Carlisle and Rosalie, but he came to check on me frequently. Then he would lean against the wall and watch us work, smile whenever I looked at him and then disappear again after a few minutes.

"He feels very protective of you", Esme commented with a smile after Jasper's forth visit.

"Yes, he does. He's not used to have someone around that he thinks he _needs_ to protect. In wars he only had to protect himself", I said, "It's really sweet of him though."

"Indeed. Hm, having you two around is going to be new to us all", Esme agreed and chuckled quietly.

"Well, we're grateful that you have accepted us", I said.

"Sure, dear. It does make it easier, when you're already acting like you've lived here always." She smiled and a second later we were wrapped up in design ideas again. I could now imagine what it was like to be best friends with your mother. I was having so much fun with Esme, and we talked like we had known each other for years. Well, I _had_ known her for years, but she had only known me for half an hour.

As I had predicted Emmet and Edward was home after one and a half hour. We decided to go meet them all together. I predicted that this would go well too, and was looking forward to meet my brothers.

"Look out, Emmet is going to smash through the door soon", I warned, and Carlisle opened the front door to find Emmet and Edward on their way up the path.

"Carlisle, what's going on? Edward said he heard thoughts coming from other vampires", Emmet demanded almost jumping through the doorway.

"He is right. We have newcomers, they arrived just two hours ago", Carlisle answered and made a gesture towards me and Jasper.

"Hello, Emmet", I grinned and he looked startled at me. He went to stand beside Rosalie and put an arm around her waist, still looking at me. "It's okay", Rosalie whispered to him, though Jasper had told me that she had argued with Carlisle about our sudden arrival.

"I'd better introduce us again", I said, looking at Emmet and Edward, who had just walked into the room, "I'm Alice, and this is Jasper."

"Hello, Emmet, Edward", Jasper said and nodded at them both. Edward looked at Carlisle, probably trying to figure out what had happened.

"Ah, so that's how", he said and turned to me, "you can see the future. Quite and interesting talent I must say."

"Yours too", I smiled.

"Thanks", he sent me a quick smile.

"Can I get the story?" Emmet asked sounding like he wasn't sure whether he should be annoyed or wary. I decided to explain myself again.

"As Edward just said; I can see the future, which means whenever someone makes a decision I see the consequences of that choice. That's how I found out about you", I said, looking at Emmet, "through my visions I have been watching you all in many years. I found out about your way of living and decided to try it myself. When I met Jasper about two weeks ago, I told him about you and he tried too. We have only been out hunting a couple of times though. And now we are here, planning to move in – if you don't mind?" Emmet still looked a little confused, but he nodded slowly in understanding, and then turned to Jasper, his eyes flickering to the scars.

"So what's the story about you Jasper? Looks like you have been through a lot." Jasper didn't answer at first, and suddenly Edward exclaimed "armies of newborns? … Well that explains it". Emmet sent him one annoyed gaze.

"Not to me", he said.

"Let us hear your story, Jasper", Esme pleaded. Jasper sighed.

"Yes, that may be for the best... It all began in 1861, where I joined the army as human… ", while he told his story I looked curiously at him, though I knew it already. But I liked listening to him telling it. He had been through so much in the past century; it would be hard to imagine, if I hadn't seen most of it myself, thanks to my visions. It was fascinating – and also terrifying – to hear how he had been changed, as I couldn't remember anything about it from my own experience.

He told them how the vampire Maria and her two partners Nettie and Lucy had found him one late evening, and Maria had been very interested in him because of his special ability. He explained how terrified he had been of these three beautiful women, who had discussed whether to 'keep' him or not, right in front of him.

Maria's plan was to take revenge and get her lost territory back. She had included Jasper in her army of newborns together with six others, and soon more were included. Jasper had been a good fighter and was put in charge of the others. They had taken the territory back easily and Maria became greedy. Doing almost a century she took over a lot of cities, and was soon in control of most of northern Texas and northern Mexico. She became very powerful, along with her great army of strong newborns with Jasper as an important officer.

While the years went by, Jasper's way of living quickly began to bother him. All the fighting, killing and hunting humans made him depressed. I made a little sigh when he told that part, remembering the memory of watching him in pain like that.

Then Peter was included in the army, and he and Jasper became friends. One day when they had to do the job of disposing the vampires that were not useful anymore, Peter had stood in the way, because Charlotte, the vampire he had fallen in love with, had been among them. Instead of destroying them both, Jasper let them flee. Maria had been very upset with Jasper, when he had let Peter and Charlotte go instead of following orders, but decided to forgive him.

Jasper had continued his life in Maria's army, but five years after, when Peter and Charlotte snuck back for Jasper, they told him about the life outside the army, and Jasper had left the army to follow them without looking back. He traveled with them a few years, but was still hunting humans and it still made him depressed. After some years he had decided to travel by himself. I smiled at that part, remembering the visions I had had. The vision that had made _me_ start looking for _him_.

Now with a tiny smile on his face, he told them how he had come to Philadelphia and found me there. He took my hand while speaking. Esme smiled at him when he told how it felt to be happy for the first time in almost a century.

"… When Alice told me about you and your unusual diet, it was almost impossible to believe, but Alice made me optimistic and we decided to try find you, which, as you well know, brought us here", when Jasper ended his speech, he looked around to every face. They were all silent for a while, wrapped up in thoughts. Only Edward, who had now seen the whole story through Jasper's own mind, while he told it, looked curiously at me instead.

"Now I know everyone's story, except yours. You were thinking of it while Jasper spoke, but you couldn't remember anything?" he asked. I shook my head.

"No. I don't remember anything of my life as human or even the first years of my immortal life. It's all gone, and I have no idea of why… I was hoping maybe Carlisle had a theory?" I said, adding the last part, while looking at Carlisle. He looked surprised.

"I haven't heard of that before… I don't know why, maybe… no, I don't know, Alice. But I will let you know if I come up with a theory", he said half-smiling.

"It's okay, Carlisle, I'm not in a hurry", I said with at grin. No, there was no need to hurry. We would spend the next eternity together with our new family, so we had all the time we needed.


	7. Gold

**Disclaimer: [insert colorfull disclaimer here]**

**Chapter 6**

Gold

"I have one more question", Edward said, breaking the noisy silence again, and everyone looked at him,"Why is all my stuff in the garage?"

Esme and I exchanged looks and smiled.

"Alice saw your room and she just loved it, so we thought that maybe she could have it?" Esme said, looking at Edward with a pleading smile. I thought she didn't want to miss the chance to do her favorite hobby of designing new rooms. I saw Edward shooting me a quick glance, before looking at his mother again.

"It's a little late to ask now isn't it?"

"We will get your new room ready soon, dear. You can have the big room down the hall upstairs, and then you can get the piano in there."

"It's okay mom, I don't mind to move", Edward said, and Esme flashed a wide smile at him. I smiled happily at him too. He didn't mind making room for me, he must like me. My new brother liked me. He returned my gaze, and walked over to me. Jasper tensed immediately when Edward came close, but I sent him a sweet smile to make him calm down again. Edward watched me with a wondering and slightly amused expression.

"What kind of guest are you supposed to be? You walk right onto our house and the first thing you do is claiming my bedroom?" he accused with a small, crooked smile.

"Your room has an amazing view, and you never appreciate it, you only read books or play piano. It's just a waste to let you keep it", I said and struck my tongue out at him, then added: "And I'm not your guest, I'm your sister now." I couldn't help treating them all like I had known them my whole life. I was so ecstatic of joy to finally be here.

"Well, then I'm going to play piano so much, that it will annoy you to death", he teased and I laughed at him.

"Not possible."

"True. Then I'll read all my books out loud."

"I would love you to."

"Then jump into your room and disturb you like at haunting ghost."

"I would very much like you to try. I doubt that you can surprise me."

"I knew you would say that."

"Of course you did, you can read my mind silly", I struck my tongue at him again and he laughed. Behind us the others chuckled slightly, probably all listening. I saw that even Jasper was smiling. Esme looked like the joy was going to make her explode.

"Well, I'm looking forward to your first attempt to annoy me, though you are not going to succeed. Shall we continue the work, Esme?" I said looking at her over Edward's shoulder. She nodded and started to move, but Carlisle held her back.

"Maybe we should discuss the public story first?"

"Let's wait a bit, Carlisle. Give Alice and Jasper a chance to settle down", she said. Her gaze made his expression soften.

"We can wait some time, I guess. But please do stay out of town until we have solved this", he said and we all nodded in understanding.

"We will", I promised. Then Esme took my hand and dragged me upstairs to continue our project.

We had quickly agreed how to make Jasper's and my room; we would leave the color light blue like it was already, but paint some stars right beneath the ceiling – my idea. Then add a bed in the shady corner with a small chandelier hanging above it – Esme's idea and I loved it. In the other part of the room we would place at small desk – where I would have space to draw, my secret hobby, when I was not occupied with stalking someone mentally, as I had been the last decade – and two chairs. At last a lot of open space to just stand and appreciate the beautiful view.

Then – after having Jasper accepts our plan for the room – we moved further to making a plan of Edward's room. We would place the piano in the middle of the room as the first thing you would see, when you walk through the door. Alongside the walls we would place a lot of shelves for his books and music. One wall would be left bare, so there would be space for a small couch and a lamp, where he could read. The lamp was just for show of course. We decided the wall color should be an ice blue shade; it would look good in the light from the large windows.

While we worked I noticed that Jasper didn't come to check on me this time. It must mean that he felt more comfortable and therefore didn't need to check if I was okay, but I couldn't help wondering what exactly was keeping him occupied and I wanted to make sure _he_ was okay. I debated whether I should go check on him or not for a while, and my attention to Esme's sketch of Edwards room faded. Downstairs I could hear them talking and discussion something. A quick check wouldn't harm. And I was a little curious too.

"Excuse me for a second, Esme", I said and got up. She snickered.

"Are_ you_ going to check on _him _now?" She asked and I looked surprised at her.

"Did you just become a mind reader too?"

"It was obvious. You have been looking at the door frequently for the past five minutes."

Hm, maybe I had, I hadn't paid attention. I smiled at her and left the room. I found Jasper, Emmet and Rosalie sitting on the couches in the living room. Emmet had just burst into laughter when I entered.

"Nice, but it's still a no", he said.

"What's going on?" I asked curiously as I went to stand behind Jasper, who of course was absolutely unharmed. He took my hand and squeezed it slightly, which made me feel better in a second.

"We are betting, who looks most scary. Emmet or me" Jasper explained while he looked up at me.

"You're not scary, you're beautiful", I said, and Emmet laughed in triumph.

"Doesn't count Emmet, she's in love with him, she won't judge fair", Rosalie said. Emmet snorted.

"Then Rosalie's vote doesn't count either." I bet she had picked Jasper. Though I spoke nothing but the truth when I said he was beautiful, I wasn't oblivious to the fact that he would look terrifying to others.

"We need a fair judge. What about Edward?" Jasper suggested.

"Yeah, you're probably right", before Emmet had a chance to call him, Edward was in the room.

"Someone said my name?" He looked at Emmet for a second then asked: "You want to know who looks most frightening of you two? Hmm … Not that I'm scared of either of you, but from an objective point of view, I think I'm going to say Jasper."

"He's not being objective, he is my brother after all", Emmet accused in a disappointed tone.

"Sorry to say it honey, but he's the most objective at this point. And he is right", Rosalie said smugly.

"So you say."

"Admit it Emmet, you lost. Judge's call. Try again when you have some battle scars of your own", Edward chuckled. I shot a quick glance at Jasper to see if the comment on his scars had bothered him, but it didn't look like it. He seemed almost at ease, finally.

"First bet with my new brother and then I loose. Hardly fair", Emmet muttered.

"You should just be grateful, we didn't bet that the winner would beat up the loser", Jasper said in amusement.

"You can't beat me up."

"I've had training. Of course I can."

"Is that a new bet?"

"So Alice, how's my room coming along?" Edward asked loudly and I remembered that I was in the middle of a project.

"You owe me a fight", Emmet told Jasper.

"Maybe some other time."

"We've just decided the last details. Esme is done with the sketch in two minutes. Come have a look", I answered Edward and he followed me upstairs, where we found Esme in Carlisle's and her bedroom. We had moved in here earlier, because Esme needed a table to sit at, when she drew.

"So was he okay?" Esme teased as we entered the room.

"Yep. Can Edward see your sketch of his new room?" She nodded and smiled, though Edward was already standing behind her, looking at the almost complete sketch.

"It looks great Esme", he told her and she beamed at him. I made a fake cough.

"Good job – _both_ of you", he corrected.

"Thanks", I grinned, and Esme snickered. When the sketch was finished she put it carefully aside and took a new paper to start drawing Jasper's and my room, while Edward left the bedroom again.

"This is going to look good", I said, sighing with joy at the mental picture the vision had shown me, "but I _foresee_ that it would be better to turn the desk like this, considering the size of the table we will end up buying."

"I'll draw it like that then", she said and then laughed quietly to herself, "your talent takes me aback every time Alice, and I should be used to some; I have a mindreading son after all."

"You'll have plenty of time to get used to it. You won't get rid of me just yet."

"Don't say that Alice, I don't want to get rid of you. I enjoy your presence already", she said in a chiding tone. I smiled at her half apologetically. It was unbelievable how she sounded like a mother to me already, I almost felt guilty for speaking my joke out loud when she used that tone. It was hard to imagine someone being a better mother than Esme, I felt so connected to her after only being with her for one day. She was undoubtedly the beating heart of this vampire family. She must be an important part of keeping up the façade to humans, the façade of being a normal family. The love she connected us with was real and it must be easy for others to feel. And as long as people knew that we were capable of loving they wouldn't be as frightened of us, as they could be.

Not to consider that love really was an important thing, when we where a vampire family alone in the request of living in human world without hurting anyone.

I could already feel that it wouldn't such a big problem for me, because as I already felt comfortable here it would be easier for me to concentrate on not killing people. I had settled down in this family mentally for years already and they had no problem accepting me. What surprised me the most was how quickly Jasper had eased up this new place. Of course it was what he wanted, but I had been worrying that he would have difficulties with relaxing in the presence of other vampires that he actually didn't know, no matter how much I had told about them. He seemed to be comfortable in their presence though, which pleased me. As long as he was entirely happy and at ease, so was I.

"You are thinking about Jasper, aren't you?" Esme suddenly asked.

"Seriously, _are_ you a mind reader?"

"You aren't paying much attention to the sketch. Besides I can see it in you face. I know what it feels to love someone so deeply and true as you clearly do. It's actually quite easy to spot. For me at least, let's call it my talent", she said and we laughed a little.

"Yes, I was thinking of him. It pleases me how comfortable his already is with your company. His past hasn't left him with much faith in others… As you well know", I forgot that he had told us the story just hours ago. I thought about my words a little and then added: "He must be reading the climate of emotions around you, which must say that you all like us."

"I know I do and Carlisle too. But I'm sure they all do, they just need to get used to the idea. The only thing that bothered us at first was… Well, the impression we got from the way Jasper looks. He must have been through so much, the poor boy", Esme said adding the last part with a horrified expression.

"He really has. I'm grateful that my visions didn't make me watch _everything_… And I know he must look terrifying to you, but nevertheless, I'm unbelievably glad we can stay here with you", I said with a beam.

"I think of you as my children already", she just said.

"Thanks Esme."

"You are welcome, sweetheart. There you go, sketch is done." She made a gesture towards the paper. I examined it and compared it to my mental picture. Perfect.

"It's just perfect. I can't wait to go shopping for the new furniture", I grinned with excitement.

"We must have the public story resettled, before we leave the house", she reminded me.

"Then let's go find Carlisle. Then we can go shopping in town on Monday."

"He's at the hospital at the moment, so we will have to wait", she said, but I was prepared.

"No, he's on his way home, he decided to go home early today", I flashed a smug smile.

"Well, then let's go down and wait for him", she said and mumbled "amazing" to herself as she got up from the chair. My smile got wider as I followed her out of the room.

We all greeted Carlisle welcome and he looked suspicious at me, probably because of the too wide smile I flashed at him, when he walked in.

"Did I miss something?" He smiled at me, friendly and welcoming. He really did like me. It must feel like I was meant to live here for him too. Why else would he be so friendly to me? And Jasper. Esme was right.

"That's just the way he is", Edward said answering my unspoken question. I glared at him. I would take some to get use to the mindreading. Esme interrupted before I got I chance to talk.

"Alice and I are ready to go shop for new furniture soon, so we thought now would be a good time to discuss the public story?" She said, as she walked over to him and kissed him quick, but passionately. He smiled down at her and the nodded.

"Yes. Both of you probably know the most of it already, thanks to Alice, but I will tell it anyway, to be sure there are no misunderstandings: See, to the population in Dupree and in the nearby as well, I'm a doctor and Esme is my wife, working with architecture, sometimes in town, sometimes not. We moved here four years ago. Edward and Emmet will be our adopted sons that we have had for nine years both of them. Rosalie, using her old last name Hale, will be Emmet's girlfriend. They are all in their first year of college" The word _girlfriend_ sounded so bizarre to me. It was not near strong enough I was sure of that, but I guess it worked for humans.

"So we need to figure out how Alice and I fit into that story", Jasper ascertained.

"Yes. I had the idea that you could be Rosalie's older brother. You have been in the army, and was sent to the Korean War, but was injured and therefore sent home. Now that you are home again, you have decided to live with us. This way you are old enough to have a job outside town and you won't have to be around people more than necessary. The only difficulty is to…"

"… Fit me into the story", I finished and Carlisle nodded. I thought about it for a while together with the rest of them. Jasper's part would work out, I could see that already. People wouldn't question his scars too much, because of 'his past in the army'. And because they were too terrified of him, story or not.

"Alice could be parentless, and we accepted to adopt her?" Esme suggested with a smile. Not far from the truth actually.

"Maybe, but it's very unlikely to adopt a girl in the age of... seventeen?" Carlisle said. He hesitated before defining my age. None of us knew if I really was seventeen, but it had to be close, regardless.

"A cousin then?" Emmet suggested.

"She doesn't look anything like you", Rosalie disagreed. Carlisle nodded in agreement with Rosalie, his expressions absent, wrapped up in thoughts.

We discussed it for a long time and other suggestions were made, but we ended up choosing Esme's idea, about me being adopted. The story would be that I had met Jasper, some years ago, when he came back from the war – and the hospital – and he had taken me with him to Dupree, and parentless as I was, I had accepted the Cullen's offer to adopt me. This solution pleased Esme much.

"We still have to give you a new last name, as Jasper will share Rosalie's. 'Cullen' won't fit into the story. At least not if someone ask for your former last name, which you should be able to remember", Carlisle reminded.

"Brandon", I said. I had no idea where it came from, or how it suddenly popped into my head, but it did sound good. Alice Brandon. It sounded natural, but it was still too bad that I couldn't entirely be Alice Cullen yet. I had looked forward to that.

Carlisle looked at me, with an expression I couldn't interpret.

"It will work. I can see that", I assured him.

"Well, then welcome to the family, Alice Brandon", Edward said and I grimaced at him. Good, but not as good as Cullen.

Another thing we needed to do before I got anywhere near town was to hunt. Jasper wasn't coming with us to town, but he still needed to hunt as well. Carlisle and Esme had agreed to come with us to show us some of their usual hunting areas. The weather was good today so we had decided to hunt at the safest place; in a huge forest up north. "There's even a possibility to find bears", Emmet had pointed out before we left. He loved to hunt bears; it was much more fun than deers according to him. Maybe Jasper would think so too, but I didn't care much myself. Must be a male-vampire-thing to play with your food, whenever you have the chance.

Esme and Carlisle had apparently agreed to come with us to get to know us, which I thought was a great idea and I happily told them about everything I knew about myself and about everything I had been doing until two weeks ago.

In return they told us about themselves, how they moved from place to place after staying somewhere for a few years. Naturally, they had to move around, because they didn't get any older and people would get suspicious. Their public story changed a little every time they moved. At first Edward had pretended to be Esme's brother, because the thought of adopting was too strange and unlikely.

"But I like it better this way, because I get to treat you as my children. It's so much more natural for me", Esme said with a warming smile, when they told us. Esme also told us that she had lost a newborn child, when she had been human. The sorrow had been too much for her and she had jumped off a cliff. She survived her attempt to kill herself and soon after Carlisle had found her in the hospital, almost dead. So inhuman or not, there were some parts of this life that pleased Esme more than her human life had done.

We reached the forest soon after and ran deep into it. As Emmet had told us there were some small bears to find here, and we caught one each, Jasper and I. Esme and Carlisle didn't need to hunt so they just watched us, as we silenced our prey and ended the thirst – for now at least. And Jasper did seem to enjoy it. He looked just as happy as I had predicted he would. It pleased me to see him so happy and cheerful, while he fought his second bear. I was full and stood beside Carlisle and Esme, and just watched him with joy. He was unbelievably fast, maybe not as fast as me, but close, and very skilled at combat. I almost felt bad for the newborns forced to fight him in the past. They hadn't had a chance, not even the slightest one.

When he was done with the bear, he looked up at us, and I danced towards him. He sent me a warm smile with eyes full of joy. Golden eyes, finally. I stared at him in wonder.

I couldn't grasp how beautiful the vegetarian diet made his eyes. They were a liquid, honey gold, shining bright at me – even through the darkness of the forest – making me loose the ability to speak. I couldn't take my eyes of him, and I didn't really want to. Behind me I heard Esme whisper "Just give them a minute, dear", probably to Carlisle, but I didn't care at the moment. Jasper looked calmly at me while stroking my cheekbone gently.

"So, does gold suit me?" He had apparently guessed that his eyes had changed color, judging from the way I stared at him.

"Yes", I breathed. He chuckled slightly and kissed me.

"Let's go home", he said and I nodded.

My mood was a strange mix of joy and wonder on the way home. Esme and Carlisle exchanged looks, and Esme chuckled. I had already guessed that she was thinking about me and Jasper. Sweet and caring as my new mother was, she always seemed to enjoy watching people in love.

Edward was a whole different story, as I realized when we got home. I was still thinking about Jasper and his unbelievably beautiful, golden eyes, when I walked past him and he rolled his eyes at me.

"You do realize that every vegetarian vampire has the same eye color, don't you", he asked sarcastically. He was clearly in a bad mood today, but I ignored him at first. Same color? No way, they were all _gold_, but no vampire in the world had eyes as beautiful as Jasper's.

"You're out of your mind." Was he calling me crazy? Crazy in love, I would admit, but that's the limit.

He rolled his eyes again and walked away. I could imagine that some days, it would be hard being the only one alone, while surrounded of three pairs, who had already found their soul mates. Some day I would consider that, while being around him.

Some_ other_ day, because my soul mate had just appeared and I stopped thinking, while gold found gold.


	8. Chess

**Disclaimer: I have no rights (other than the human rights of course)**

**So as the chapter name suggests characters are gonna be playing some chess. I just loved the idea of Edward and Alice playing chess with each other using their skills, like the books describe. Let me know what you think.**

**Chapter 7**

Chess

Almost two months had gone by, and so quickly, even considering that we were also awake at night. We had got Jasper's and my room settled, and Edward's as well, actually in different order. Edward had been teasing me so much with childish complains about no privacy – which actually _was_ my fault – that I had taken pity on him and agreed to make his room first.

The shopping trip had been mostly fun, but a little weird too, I would have to admit. People weren't scared of us, but they usually kept a certain distance especially to me – I was new and none of them seemed to like the idea of an extended Cullen family. On the outside everyone seemed to enjoy the company of Esme, but I could tell that they felt we all were different from them, and I heard that a lot of rumors were created. None of them anywhere near the truth, but enough to make them send us strange looks, when they thought we weren't looking and I was grateful that Jasper had decided to stay home.

He had only been in town once in the past months, and though he had not been the slightest bit thirsty it was still very difficult and painful for him to be around humans. I reckoned that some of them noticed. This especially made the rumors spread like fire, and where some of them had started to like me – which made me oddly happy – neither of them liked Jasper at all. They were merely terrified of him just as I expected.

Of course Jasper could easily feel their fear, and it wasn't hard to convince him not to visit town too often. But he agreed because of their fear and not because of his own pain; he was determined to learn to be around people, though the goal was still far away.

So while pretending to work outside town he was at home, and I had agreed to stay with him, while pretending to go to school in another town. I felt like I wasn't entirely ready for being around humans that much. I was often in town with Esme though, whenever she had business to do there, and it had become much easier for me now. But I still felt the need to be careful.

Today was a sunny day and we all stayed inside the house, since no one felt like hunting – we had done that two days ago, all of us. So now, Esme was working on a new project, and Rosalie and Emmet sat in the sofa completely lost in each other at the moment. Carlisle and Jasper was talking about something I couldn't hear, Edward was in his room and I sat in a chair in the living room, staring out the window, a little bored.

Then I smiled; Edward had just solved my matter of boredom. As I knew he would, he dropped a chessboard in front of me seconds later.

"Are you up for a challenge?"

"I'm always up for a challenge."

"Then play chess with me." I had to laugh. Did he think he could beat me? Had he considered the fact that I would predict every strategy he would come up with?

"Of course I have considered that. I thought that since you are gifted too, you would agree to play. No one else wants to play with me anymore." There was an edge of disappointment in his voice. I could imagine why the others refused to play with him though.

He grimaced at me and started to set up the chessmen.

"You don't know what you are doing, Alice", Emmet warned me, still sitting in the sofa with Rosalie on his lap. I made a fake scornful laughter.

"I think I do. And more important: I will know what he does too", I grinned.

"I was just about to say the same", Edward grinned.

"This should be interesting", I said with a smirk, "but I might need to refresh the rules, haven't played in a long time.

"You'll learn by doing. Ladies first?" Edward offered me the side with the white chessmen. I smiled smugly at him, and then focused on the game. Silence came upon us as the game began.

I touched the one pawn, as if to make my first move. As soon as I did it, I saw the black pawn right across move forward, in my head. So far this move was okay, and moved my pawn two steps forward. Just as I had predicted Edward moved his black pawn forward as well.

I glanced at the board, touching some of the chessmen slightly, trying to predict his next move. I made my left knight move to f3, threatening his pawn. A lot of different strategies crossed my mind; Edward was trying to confuse me.

"And it's working, you can't see a thing", he smirked, his voice smug and gleeful.

"Shut up, Edward", I snapped and he laughed.

He moved another pawn, and I began to see his strategy clearly. I would win. All I had to do was following my own plan one step at a time, while thinking of something else. I moved my knight, while focusing on the light blue color of his blouse, watching every detail, every little string twisted into another.

"Stop watching my clothes", he said and I smirked at him.

Almost an hour went by, and we had only moved a few pieces. I would have to admit that this was a little difficult with him in my head all the time. Every time I moved he got a little piece of my strategy, though I tried to hide it. But I had a pretty good idea of his strategies too.

While we played, everyone had come to watch, and was gathered around the table. Even Rosalie and Emmet had got up from the sofa and were now standing behind Edward, Emmet with his arms around Rosalie's waist and his head leaning on her shoulder.

I touched the left bishop, but snapped away as soon as I saw it get killed by Edward's knight. I had to think fast, otherwise he would hear too much.

Edward smiled crookedly.

Instead I moved the queen out and took away his rook, while watching Emmet's amused face. Edward made an annoyed sound in response to my move.

"Now where's the poker face, Edward?" He ignored me.

One more hour went by. We were getting closer to an end, though only a few chessmen were taken down. Our audience was still intact, equipped with almost never-ending patience and concentration as we all were. Only Emmet commented once in a while, when the silence had lasted too long.

I moved my last rook forward, ready to sacrifice it. Unfortunately I thought of this move too much and Edward didn't fall into my trap. Instead he tried a new strategy, he had apparently just worked out, and I got a vision, showing me every movement he would make. Edward sighed and then changed his plan.

Almost another hour had went by, when I exclaimed a smug laughter. I had finally trapped him, and he sighed in defeat as I moved my still living rook forward.

"Checkmate", I announced and flashed a wide, smug smile at him. He flipped his king and let it hit the chessboard, defeated.

"Well, that sure was the most interesting game of chess I've ever had", he admitted, amused.

"Indeed", I agreed.

"What about revenge?" He asked, his voice and expression challenging.

"I'm on", I said and we resettled the pieces.

The rest of the day went by, while we played the second game. This time our audience grew tired of watching and withdrew one by one. Rosalie and Emmet got back to the sofa, ignoring the surroundings again. For a long time they just sat down, staring into each others eyes. I could tell that Edward was annoyed by them, but I smiled to myself. He didn't know how it felt. I did, and I suddenly missed Jasper, though he was five steps away, standing in the kitchen with Carlisle. I missed looking into his golden eyes that lighted up like stars.

"Alice, focus on the game please", Edward said in an annoyed tone.

"You wish."

"I do."

The sun was disappearing behind the dark trees of the forest when it became my turn to sigh in defeat.

"Checkmate", he smirked.

"Unfortunately. Let's call it even and name ourselves as chess masters of this house", I suggested with a grin.

"Sound's fair."

"Who won?" Esme asked, just appearing in the room.

"Edward", I told her with fake sadness in my voice.

"So now you're even", she concluded, smiling.

"Exactly", I agreed and got up from the chair and looked around. Not much had changed in the three hours Edward and I had spent, playing our second game. Carlisle and Jasper was still talking in the kitchen, about what I couldn't hear, and Rosalie and Emmet were still in the sofa, though they were now sitting so close and in such tight embrace, that it would have been difficult to tell which hand belonged to who, if Emmet's hadn't been that big. They seemed completely unaware of the world surrounding them as they kissed. And they were quite loud actually – for vampire ears. If I hadn't been so preoccupied at the ending of the chess game they sure would have been very disturbing, but I hadn't noticed them before now. I began to see Esme's point of making them a house; the sweet vampire love they shared was about to turn into something that definitely shouldn't have an audience.

Apparently Esme felt the need to make her point clear again:

"Rose, Emmet", they reacted at once at the sound of the tone she used, "don't you think, you should use your opportunity of some privacy?" Or give us some privacy, I could imagine her thinking. Edward smiled sarcastically at me and nodded. I hid a grin.

Rosalie and Emmet got up. Rosalie seemed a little embarrassed and Emmet just grinned in joy as they left the house.

Carlisle and Jasper entered the room as the couple left.

"Did they leave for their house?" Carlisle asked Esme, while walking casually towards her.

"Yes. I just thought that since I built them a house, they should use it", she said, smiling up at him, while he took her hands.

Jasper went to my side.

"So, did he beat you this time?"

"Mm-hmm", I said, looking him in the eyes. He smiled down at me and touched my cheek.

Edward made an annoyed sound and left the room. Esme looked after him, frowning and with concern in her eyes. I could imagine why. No matter what couple left the house, he was still the only one alone.

For the same reason it must be a relief for him to have the opportunity of getting Rosalie and Emmet getting kicked out of the house once in a while. They were – like most couples I had seen, except Carlisle and Esme – in need of being glued together as much as possible.

With Jasper it wasn't usually like that. Not that I didn't love kissing him, but most of the time it was enough for me just to look into his deep, sparkling eyes, to have a close look at _my_ Jasper, the one that only I saw. I knew it was like that for him too. This easy, everlasting, not too physical relationship was so much easier for him to handle, his past taking in consideration. Years of war didn't give him much knowledge about relationships to work with.

His smile was warmer now, dazzling. He always knew when I was thinking of him. He nodded in direction of the stairs, and I let him lead me up to our room. He closed the door behind us and we went to sit on the bet. Edward was playing in his room. The tune was sad at the moment.

"I feel a little sorry for him – for being the only one alone I mean", I admitted. The music stopped soon after I had spoken. Maybe he'd heard me. My vision told me, that he would be reading books now. He must know everything by now, as much as that boy read.

"I know. Just like Esme. But I'm sure he will find someone sometime", he assured me with a comforting voice.

"Hey, it's my job to assure people. I'm the physic, remember?" He laughed, and the deep bass sound filled the room, mesmerizing me. I noticed that I was smiling. I was hard to do otherwise when the tiny gold stars, that were his eyes, watched me like that with such intensity that it stunned me.

"Then you must know that he will find someone?"

"You know it doesn't work like that. I can't see anything yet", I sighed. A warm feeling spread inside me as Jasper tried to calm me.

"That's cheating!" I accused, but he just chuckled, which also made me feel better. Nothing could calm me like the sound of his laugh, so I gave in and chuckled along with him.

I lay down on the bed and he lay beside me, his head resting in his hands, so he could watch my face, while I stared at the ceiling with a tiny smile on my lips. Both of us became still like statues, we could be like this forever. And it was nice just to be still and … to think. To think about everything. To think about the amazing people living in the house, that now was my home too, about Carlisle and Esme, my new amazing parents, about Edward my favorite brother, about Rosalie and Emmet, probably having fun in their cottage right now. And about Jasper, the one I had loved for decades and only known in real life for two weeks. The one with whom I shared a whole different relationship than Emmet and Rosalie, with, but just as everlasting. Just not as obvious as theirs. We didn't _need_ to let anyone know how we felt, if they didn't guess it by themselves, and we didn't _need_ reassurances for our love very often – actually we didn't need it at all. It was in some way funny realizing, that the way we felt was never going to change the slightest bit. Feelings like this were permanent in vampire world, we both knew that. He would own my un-beating heart for all eternity, he would control my every emotion. Maybe even literally… perhaps I should confront him about that part some time, I thought to myself with a light chuckle.

"What are you laughing at now?" Jasper asked curiously, his golden eyes catching mine.

"Nothing, I just love you", I grinned and kissed him on the cheek. He accepted that explanation and smiled warmly in response. I got a glimpse of cloud nine reflecting in his eyes.


	9. Vision

**Disclaimer: I solemnly swear that I'm up to no… no wait wrong book. I solemnly swear I will not take credit for making up characters or setting.**

**Chapter 8**

Vision

Dupree was a small town filled with nice people as a general rule, except for the few times we brought Jasper with us. Giving human eyes weren't as good as ours they didn't get the full view of Jaspers ravaged face, but just enough for him to scare them to death every time he looked at them. Nonetheless, he insisted on coming along sometimes, claiming it to be a part of his practice in living the Cullen lifestyle. Besides he hated just staying inside all the time.

So today we went into town together with Esme to buy a new sofa, because Emmet accidently broke it when Jasper had thrown him into it. Emmet had jumped onto him in a surprise attack, because he still claimed that Jasper owed him a fight. Jasper's superb reflexes and strength had sent him flying across the room a few seconds after that. Emmet hadn't stopped laughing until the second Esme yelled at him for doing such an unbelievable brainless thing. Emmet had apologized with huge grin and assured Jasper that he hadn't seen the last of him. The rest of the present vampires – including myself – had rolled their eyes at him a lot.

So now here we were, on our way to buy new furniture. We entered the shop and the owner was just about to greet us welcome with a huge beam, but then he saw Jasper and managed only to offer us a silent hello and a halfhearted smile.

"Hello, Mr. Wallace", said Esme with a friendly smile. "We're here looking for a new sofa, and I wondered if you could recommend something?"

"Well…" Said Mr. Wallace and started telling Esme about the range. I didn't really listen, I was busy keeping an eye on Jasper. It didn't look like the pain was too much for him to handle at the moment, though his eyes was beginning to darken. I could see though that he was holding his breath, the slight movement of his chest was only a façade.

After a few minutes the shop owner left us alone and Jasper relaxed a little.

"So, what do you think?" Esme asked us and made a gesture towards some of the sofas. "I think the light grey one over there could look good, but I want your opinion too."

"Esme, I apologize again for breaking your couch. I'm terribly sorry", Jasper said still looking embarrassed.

"Oh, don't be dear, things like that happen in a home like ours", she said waving her hand at him to make him stop apologizing.

"Beside you should really blame Emmet for this. He was the one trying to surprise you", I pointed out.

He sighed, but smiled a little. "I suppose you're right. I will get back at him sometime."

"Outside the house please. Otherwise we will end up buying every sofa in town", Esme interrupted. "I would like to avoid that if you will be so kind."

"Of course. I will try and behave", said Jasper.

"I'm sure _you_ will. I was more worried about Emmet. I should remind him again, so I don't have to end up yelling at him all the time."

I chuckled to myself at their conversation. This was so typical; Jasper apologizing halfway on behalf of Emmet and Esme shrugging it off, making him feel better by chiding Emmet instead.

"Alice, what do you think?"

"Well… how about that big one in the corner? I like the design."

We discussed it for a while, but ended up choosing a third one, that Esme thought would go better with the other colors in the living room. We went home after that, so it wouldn't be too hard for Jasper. He didn't say anything, but he didn't fool me, I could see that he was hurting from all the human scents, though he tried to cover it. He was so stubborn.

At home everyone could relax, even Jasper. It thrilled me to see that he was glad to be here and that he wasn't anxious being surrounded by vampires all the time. It was after all still a new lifestyle for him, this.

Edward and I played a lot of chess at home. We had evolved a new way of playing, a way that only worked for the two of us of course. We played almost the entire game in our minds, me predicting his strategy and him hearing what I had just predicted. A game only took ten minutes this way, and only a few pieces were moved before one of us surrendered.

Unfortunately Edward was pretty good at chess, or maybe he had better odds, but he won most of the games regardless. Still it was fun and I loved doing stuff with Edward. When he wasn't all annoyed by the fact that he was the only one alone, he was laughing and joking most of the time.

"And… checkmate. Again", Edward said with a smirk. I snorted and flipped my white king.

"I'll get you next time. It sucks to start by the way, because you can just plan your strategy after my moves."

He chuckled. "Don't be such a poor loser. Do you want the black side then?" He turned the chessboard so the black pieces were in front of me.

"Na, let's take a break. But I _will_ beat you next time", I said, sticking my tongue out at him.

"Keep dreaming, sis", he said and though I just lost to him _again_ I couldn't help smiling a bit. I loved it when he called me sister.

The house was quiet at the moment. Everyone was inside, since it was a sunny day. It was Sunday so neither Esme nor Carlisle was at work, and no one went to school. Edward, Emmet and Rosalie were pretending to be at the age of college students, so that was where they were spending time during the week. I wouldn't join until next year because I had to look after Jasper, who was supposed to have a job outside town, which of course was a lie. He wouldn't be able to handle that yet.

"Hey Jasper, are you up for that fight now?" I heard Emmet say from somewhere in the hallway.

"Emmet, would you drop that? Esme have just bought a new couch", Rosalie said, but Emmet protested loudly.

"We'll go outside this time I promise! He can't just claim to be stronger than me without proving it!"

"I didn't claim to be stronger than you Emmet, I just said I was more skilled than you", I heard Jasper say as he stepped into the hall from the kitchen.

"Potato-potato."

I snickered at Emmet's annoyed tone and was just about to join them when the vision hit me. The picture of a whole different scene blocked my sight and I was forced into the usual surreal space of my visions. Except this was nothing usual. I was staring at Jasper crouched over a figure and for a moment it could have been anything, but then he raised his head and his crimson red eyes flashed with pain. In his arms was a little girl, hanging limb in his strong grasp and with blood running from her ravaged neck.

I recognized the place too, but it was too hard to focus on that with Jasper's agonized face staring at me in the vision. Still only half-conscious I gripped the door frame for something real to hold on too, and the vision slowly flickered away.

"Alice, what's the matter?" Edward asked from somewhere in the room and the mental pictures returned with his words, every bit as terrifying as the first time. "Oh."

As my focus returned, I was surrounded, and Jasper stood in front of me with a wary expression. His eyes were dark. _But not any much longer_, I thought.

"What's wrong Alice? Have you seen something?" He demanded to know. I didn't answer at first, trying to recover from the vision. Then I faced him.

"You are not planning to go into town, are you?" I asked. He didn't answer; he knew that I had the answer already. The place I had recognized was halfway on the road to town. The one that we took, when we went on foot. I continued to stare at him, holding his gaze.

"Don't!" I said. The vision had been so clear. This must be happening soon.

"Alice, what?" Jasper said with a confused voice.

"Why would you go into town alone?"

"I wouldn't. Esme told me that there was something wrong with the sofa and I asked if I could go with her. Tell me what you saw." I bit my lip, but didn't answer at first.

"Yeah, do we get to hear the story?" Emmet asked impatiently but Rosalie shushed him.

At first I couldn't speak. I needed to warn him, but how could I tell him that he was going to kill a child?

"Edward, will you explain then?" Carlisle suggested. I looked at him over Jasper's shoulder hoping to catch his attention. _Please Edward. Please don't tell him that he's going to kill a little girl_, I thought intensely. Edward nodded slightly, almost unnoticeable, but I relaxed a little at his acknowledgment.

"Well… What Alice saw seems to be connected to the trip that Esme and Jasper is planning soon. Alice saw Jasper… killing someone. This person must have been too close or started to bleed in some way."

The expressions turned solemn. Even Emmet found a way to shut his mouth. Of course Jasper had killed before, but this was serious and we all knew it. Depending on who the girl was, the consequences would be serious. Jasper turned to me again, pain and some sort of panic clear in his eyes. "Is that what you saw?" He whispered. I nodded.

"How? When?"

"You must have gotten away from Esme, that's why she's not in the vision", I said.

"But when? We haven't set the date yet."

"I don't know", I whispered. "But soon. Within two weeks maybe."

"So what do we do? If Jasper kills someone from town, we could all be suspected", Rosalie said and I shot her an angry stare. Didn't she think about Jasper's well being?

"Isn't it simple?" Emmet said. "Alice's visions can change, right? So if he doesn't go outside, nothing will happen." I knew he was right. I also knew that Jasper would hate being locked inside for two weeks or more.

"I accept it", Jasper said all of a sudden. "It will be for the best. I won't go into town if I have the risk of killing someone."

"Of course I can just bring someone else, but you will need to hunt soon, dear", Esme said.

"I can handle a week or two without it. There is no temptation in here", he answered solemnly.

"Is it settled then? This will only be temporarily of course", Carlisle said and Jasper nodded. The heavy atmosphere didn't vanish at first, even when people started to spilt up.

"Are you okay, Jasper?" Esme asked and touched Jasper's arm carefully. He tried to smile at her.

"I'll be fine, thanks Esme." She smiled at him and left. _Liar_, I thought. I heard Edward sigh almost as a confirmation of my words. It probably was. A short silence appeared and neither Jasper nor I moved. I was pretty sure he was eyeing me suspiciously, but I didn't look at him. So we have solved the matter for now, but how was Jasper going to endure being held in here for two weeks. He had been outside as much as possible for the past few weeks, even though the wind could carry human scent. He hated being trapped inside.

"A minute, Alice?" He asked with an inscrutable expression, and I just nodded and followed. At the other end of the house he turned to face me.

"There's something you're not telling me. I can feel that you're hiding something", he said in a low whisper so none of the others could hear us. "You can tell me."

"I'm not telling you. For your own sake."

"Please, Alice", he whispered in a pleading voice, but I shook my head. "I need to know what to be prepared for."

"No, it's not that kind of detail. And nothing will happen as long as you… stay in here". The last part of the sentence came out as a sigh. Jasper sighed to, in defeat. He knew I wasn't going to tell him. I wouldn't. It would hurt him too much.

He walked away and I began to wander around the house, wrapped up in thought. For a moment I tried desperately to come up with another solution. I tried to look into the future again, but found nothing useful. The horrifying vision of Jasper was gone. The plan was changed. So be it. If I had to doom him to be held prisoner in his own house, to save him from that, then that was what must be done.

"You're not the one to doom him, you do know that, right?" I realized that I had just walked passed Edward's room, and he was sitting by his piano, watching me through the open doorway.

I didn't answer at first.

Edward sighed. "You have saved him, rather than doomed him. Think about it, if you hadn't predicted this, it would probably have happened and then… well, you know the rest."

"I know. I guess you're right. Thanks."

"Just remember that." He looked away from me, and refocused on the keyboard. He touched a few keys and then another, like he was trying to figure out what sounded best.

"The light tone was best", I told him and he smiled.

"You might be right about that."

"So you're composing songs?" I asked, glad to have changed the subject.

"You knew that. You have been spying on us for decades." Of course I knew it, but it was different hearing it in reality, so I had to ask, regardless.

"I can imagine", he said, answering my thought. I grimaced at the mindreading but sat down on the bench beside him and listened while he created a song. It had tempo, a quick rhythm, and light tones. It sounded cheerfully.

"It sounds like a happy song. Cheerful", I said.

"It reminds me of this crazy hyper vampire I've come to know", he said, smiling crookedly. "Besides I thought we might need something to lift the mood. See?" He nodded towards the door, where Esme had come to stand. She was smiling at her son and listening carefully to the melody Edward was composing. Edward continued playing while Carlisle came to join the audience. He took his place behind Esme, wrapping his arms around her while watching Edward. For a moment I ached to go find Jasper, but I decided to stay for at while, for Edward's sake.

"How nice of you."

_And also because I enjoy you music_, I thought while rolling my eyes at his sarcasm.

"I know", he said, but cracked a smile.

The first few days were not bad at all. It was still sunny so everyone stayed in of course, but when people started going back to work and school while he was forced to stay indoor, Jasper started getting tense. Of course I was there too, to keep him company but also to keep an eye on him, which felt weird. Not to mention that he insisted on staying indoor, though the rest of us thought it would be okay to walk around the house. There was a small river somewhere behind the house where he liked to sit, but at the moment he wouldn't even go there.

"But it's safe there. There's no one around", I said to him more than once, but he insisted on staying inside the house.

"We don't know why this person is out there on the road, and he or she could be walking around our house for all we know", Jasper said. In some way he was right. We didn't know what the girl was doing out here, but the house arrest was already making him edgy, and of course it didn't help that he could pick up our tension without even trying. That talent of his definitely had its bad sides too.

At the moment everything was peaceful. I stood in my room gazing out the window and just enjoyed the view. It was so quiet in the house; I could only hear the sound of Jasper's footsteps as he walked down the hall on the other side of the bedroom wall behind me. A few seconds after he walked through the open doorway and came to stand beside me. His hand found mine and he took it, looking out the window while twisting our fingers in each other's.

"I do love this view", I said and he chuckled with his deep bass laughter.

"I know. You did after all insist on throwing Edward out of here."

"He didn't mind so much."

"I know that. He likes you."

"You too, Jasper. They all do."

"Mm. That's quite amazing."

I turned to watch him, but his face showed no pain by his own words. So he had just come to accept his own assumption that he was a terrifying monster. It looked like the depression hadn't left him completely after all.

"You're really not that terrifying once people get to know you. They see through it all. They don't care about your past." He must know that by now. He must have read their feelings about him.

My mind went blank for second when a vision flickered by. I was prepared for the worst and so was Jasper.

"What did you see?" He snapped, but I shook my head, as if to say 'it's not about you'.

"Esme just decided to come home early. I bet she is worried about you." His shoulders relaxed again and he breathed a relieved sigh.

"Esme worries a lot", he said to no one in particular.

"It's a good thing she doesn't get wrinkles." He smiled and I felt his kiss at my temple. I squeezed his hand.


	10. Wait

**Disclaimer: I'm new here; do I have to write these every time? **

**Chapter 9**

Wait

Once again I found myself in the dilemma of not wanting to leave Jasper, but also desperately wanting to go buy new clothes. I had already worn every piece of clothes three times and that was more than enough. Of course I felt incredibly selfish for thinking like that, but I couldn't help it. At first I didn't say anything, but Jasper saw right through me of course.

"Just go, Alice, I don't mind. Why should I keep you inside with me all the time?" Jasper said and I thought about it.

"We can just make a quick trip now, Alice, I'm sure that won't be a problem. Carlisle will be home soon", Esme said, appearing in the doorway. I quickly searched the future to make sure.

"He will be here in an hour, and so will the rest. Okay, let's go then, but we won't be gone long", I said looking into Jasper's dark sparkling eyes to see if he was okay. It looked like it.

So we went to town. When it was only the two of us, people were being nice and friendly. Only a few were a little edgy, probably because I was still new in town, but they never made any comments.

"We should find some clothes for the boys too, I bet they could use some change in their wardrobes", I said and Esme nodded with a smile.

"I suppose you're right. We haven't exactly been shopping much for the past few months."

"Well, it's a good thing I'm forcing you now then." Esme snickered. We were silent for a while, picking out clothes for ourselves and the boys. I doubted that Rosalie would like me to buy for her, so I hadn't bothered to ask her. So while Esme found something for her and Carlisle, I took the liberty of finding clothes for Jasper and Emmet. Even though it was summer outside I knew that Jasper would rather have long sleeves, in order to cover up the scars on his arms. I guess I could understand that. Emmet hardly cared what he wore, or at least that was the impression I had gotten. For my self I wanted something a little unusual, not something every one wore. I found some tank-tops, jeans and a few summer-dresses. That would do. At last I found a few shirts for Edward though he had told me, that he didn't need anything. Well, that wasn't his decision to make.

The shopping trip lasted a little more than an hour, and by the time we were paying for the last bunch of clothes I was aching to go back to Jasper. I knew he was okay in physical sense, of course, but it wasn't hard to guess that he was tense anyway. It had been five days now. It probably wouldn't have been I problem if he was locked inside because of sun, though he still wouldn't appreciate that, but now that he was locked in to prevent him from killing someone the whole atmosphere changed. Besides it was hardly sunny for two weeks in a row, but he had to stay in regardless, that was what we had agreed. It only made the whole thing worse for him. Sometimes I hoped I was only overreacting for thinking this, but unfortunately Edward had agreed with my thoughts, so it was hardly the case.

For that matter I was glad when we reached the house.

"We're home again!" I said as we walked through the door, just loud enough for every present vampire to hear it. "Come get you new clothes people!" Esme snickered at me and went to Carlisle in the kitchen. I looked in the living room and found Emmet and Rosalie on the couch. I tossed Emmet his bag of new clothes and he flashed me a huge grin.

"Thanks Alice. Now I won't need to do it myself."

"You're welcome", I said and turned to Rosalie. "I figured that you wanted to buy your own?"

"Of course. I'll go tomorrow or something", she said and a vision proved her decision.

"'kay", I said and danced my way on through the house to find the house to find Edward and Jasper. They were both in Edward's room, talking.

"I guess you never really listen to me", Edward said with a tiny crooked smile as he caught his bag.

"Nope", I said and gave Jasper the bag with his and my clothes.

"I'll just put them in our room for now", he said and walked away. After he left I turned to Edward. _How is he?_ I asked silently.

Edward shrugged. "Better now you're back." I sighed, wishing it would all just end.

"Believe me, everyone wishes for that."

"You know, it's really rude messing with people's heads like that", I said sticking my tongue out at him as I often did when I wanted to be mad at him, but really couldn't.

"Can't help it. You of all vampires should know that."

I grimaced at him. "I guess I do know." _Still, it's annoying_.

"Get used to the lack of privacy." He smirked, but there was something apologetically in his gaze. It was unlikely that I was the first to point this out. This time Edward didn't acknowledge my statement, but I knew I was right, so I just offered him a tiny smile before I left the room.

I found Jasper in our own room down the hall. He was standing against the wall with his arms crossed, looking out the large windows. The tension was easy to pick up and there was a longing in his eyes, despite his own stubbornness, as he scanned the green field outside.

"I had just started to like the everyday life here, before… this. Everything is upside down at the moment", he said when I was right behind him. I just sighed as an answer. Of course he was right.

"You haven't been drawing since we first came here", he noted all of a sudden. I hadn't even thought of that.

"I guess you're right. Haven't found the time."

"You have time now." He turned to look at me with an expression I couldn't decipher, so I just shrugged. Well, I did have time and I could use the distraction.

I found some paper and a pencil and sat down at the small table. Usually I drew designs for dresses or other clothing. Whatever came to mind. Not much came to mind today so I just drew a tree. I wasn't all that fabulous at drawing and it was nothing compared to the sketches Esme made, but it was fun, regardless.

Jasper just watched me, still standing against the wall, but it seemed to me that he had eased up a bit. Like he was using it as a distraction too. Maybe he was. If that was the case I had even more motivation to keep drawing; I liked the thought of having his mind off things. I had after all sentenced him to stay in here, no matter what Edward said.

The one tree became a forest on the paper, and when it was filled up I decided to try creating something special for the dresses I had bought. First I just drew one on the paper, then tried to change a few details. I smiled to myself while working and I only faintly noticed the light grey sky turning to dark, while I sat there. Jasper didn't move the whole time.

Greyish clouds were still covering the sky, as one more day had almost gone by. It was sometime about six p.m. according to the clock, but of course it meant nothing to us, giving we never ate. Human food anyway. I was aching a little to go hunt, but nothing I couldn't handle. I was not going to leave Jasper to go hunt, I would wait for him, as did Carlisle. Rosalie and Emmet had been out hunting once with Edward and Esme today, but they came back a few hours ago. I could hear Emmet talking with Jasper in the kitchen. Edward was playing on his piano again and the TV was on. Someone was zapping through the channels as fast as the remote allowed.

As I walked closer to the kitchen I heard what they were talking about. Emmet was telling Jasper about the last day of his mortal life. How he was attacked by a bear, and it had almost killed him, but Rosalie had been there in time to safe him.

"… She have told me that I reminded her of some kid she new in her former life, but no matter what her reason was I'm glad she did it, or I would have been long gone bear food by now. She carried me all the way back to Carlisle, you know. So he could change me."

"Must have been hard for her", Jasper said.

"I bet." Emmet laughed. "I'd like to meet that bear now, though. It was a big one, could almost be a fun battle."

"You're all about the fight, I see", Jasper chuckled.

"Sure! It's fun! But I guess you've had your share already. It's crazy. Honestly, how many wars have you participated in?"

"Hundreds. I haven't counted them."

"I can imagine why. Counted your scars then?"

"Of course not. They're not trophies."

"No, sure not… It's unbelievable, still. So many." There was a small pause, where I just stood in the doorway. None of them had noticed me yet. Emmet was looking at Jaspers arms, which was for once not covered by his long sleeves.

"I know I must look frightening, even to you", Jasper said with an almost solemn voice.

"Yeah, you look pretty scary, you won that bet already. But I see Alice doesn't care about it."

"Nope, I don't", I grinned as I stepped into the kitchen. Jasper looked down at me, smiling. His eyes were only for me now, and he stroked me cheek gently. It seemed like the gloomy thoughts of the prisoner's state were happily forgotten at the moment. In my peripheral vision I saw Emmet grimace to get Jasper's attention back, but without success. He gave up then and walked out of the room with a loud sigh. I stuck my tongue out at him and looked back at Jasper with a beam.

"You actually are quite brave, since you haven't shown the slightest fear by the sight of me", he said and I rolled my eyes.

"Would you stop that already?" He said nothing at first, so I stretched up to kiss the scars on his jaw, and then found his lips. He ran his hand through my short hair, and then pulled away again, looking a little more convinced.

"Thanks, Alice. You are such a relief in my life."

"Are you guys done yet?" Emmet said from the living room.

"Looks who's talking", I yelled at him, but he just laughed.

I chuckled to myself and looked at the newspaper laying the table. I flipped the pages nonchalantly and skimmed the local news. At page seven I froze. There was a picture of a young girl smiling at the camera. She had blond hair that fell over her shoulders and blue eyes, approximately about six years old. The disturbing thing was that she fit remarkably well into the horrifying vision of Jasper drinking a little girl's blood. Too well, to be a coincidence. There was no doubt it was her, but that wasn't even the worst. It was the text below the picture that had caused my panic: It was the mayor's daughter.

"Alice, what is it?" Jasper's alarmed voice ripped me back to reality, and I tried to calm myself. I closed the newspaper before Jasper would make any connection. There was really no need to react like this. The vision had changed, vanished, so none of that would happen.

"Nothing. It doesn't matter", I said.

"Was it another vision?"

I shook my head. "No. I just remembered something."

"But you won't tell me?"

"No. Like I said, it doesn't matter. Honestly, there's no worry." That should be true. I smiled at him, but he saw right through me, naturally. He raised an eyebrow, but I shook my head a little and then left the room.

Edward had stopped playing a little while ago and he had just walked into the living room, when I entered. He was standing with his arms crossed and watched Emmet and Rosalie – again forgetting the whole world around them – with a disgusted look on his face.

"Em!" He called and Emmet rolled away from his lover for a second to look at Edward. "Get a room."

"Fine. C'mon babe, let's continue in our own house." He didn't remove the goofy grin, but Rosalie glared at Edward while walking past him.

"Hey Emmet, wasn't it just two minutes ago you complained about Jasper and I?" I asked him, but he just kept grinning.

"I was just joking around, munchkin." I glared at him at the last commentary and considered hitting him.

"I'll hold him for you", Edward said to me.

"What?" Emmet said, and then we heard the sound of Rosalie slamming the front door. "You know what, never mind. See ya, kids." And he was out of the door after Rosalie. Edward shook his head and rolled his eyes. There was silent for a moment and all the tension returned. I could hear Jasper enter the room too, and I hated keeping things from him, but it really wouldn't do him any good to know this. I couldn't even think of the consequences, if he had actually killed that girl.

"Edward?" He looked at me. "Play chess with me?"

"Okay", he said and found the chessboard. "The black pieces this time?" He asked.

"Thanks."

The game turned out to be one of the long ones, because I was so preoccupied with Jasper. This annoyed Edward a lot, but I couldn't help it. It paid off in the end though; I won because Edward couldn't get past the thoughts of Jasper long enough to get a real picture of my strategy. _Ironic_, I thought. He sighed.

"Congratulations", he said, smiling crookedly. We set the few moved pieces back at their place in silence.

_By the way I forbid you to tell Jasper about the girl._

"Sure. Let's play another game." I could see in his golden eyes, as he looked at me, that he had heard my silent demand. The 'sure' was the answer to that, but Jasper wouldn't know. Edward was brilliant.

He smiled.

Throughout the night we played a lot of different games. Very few of them were really fun, when you play with a mind reader, but we tried nonetheless. Jasper joined in for a play of poker, but he regretted that soon after. Of course we both lost to Edward, and Jasper stayed out for the next round. He went to watch TV while Edward and I continued to play, switching to ticktacktoe this time. It turned out to work pretty well, because each game was so quick, but after playing that for two hours straight it was getting really boring. After that we played rummy. Also a very bad idea, because my own talent wasn't as useful as his, when it came to this kind of game, even though I knew which card I was going to draw. It did however distract me, so I didn't mind that much.

The morning came slowly as the sun rose above the trees in east. Jasper had left the room some hours ago, but Edward and I sat at the exact same spots, still playing card games. When the sky started to brighten Carlisle appeared in the living room with his suitcase in hand.

"I'm going to the hospital", he announced, kissed Esme – who had also appeared out of nowhere, and now stood in the doorway between the living room and the hall – on his way out and left the house in a hurry. It didn't take long before Rose and Emmet showed up too.

"Sorry sis, have to go to school now", Edward said and stood up.

"You were going to lose anyway", I said, putting down the rummy-cards.

"Sure. Just a second Emmet, I need to get my schoolbag", he said towards the door. With the speed that only vampires posses he had run upstairs and fetched his bag, and was back a few seconds after with the bag over his shoulder. He eyed me and made a fake yawn before following them. He didn't enjoy school much.

"We'll take Rosalie's car today", I heard Emmet say. The last sound was the starting of a car and they were off to school.

"So I should get going too", Esme said and she, too, was ready to leave within a minute.

"Have a nice day, Esme", I said and she smiled warmly at me.

"You too, Sweetie. Take good care." And then she was gone. The whole house was empty except for Jasper and I. I wondered where he was. He had wished to be alone, but somehow I got the feeling that he needed me. Maybe it was just I, who needed him at the moment. Visions of his immediate future flickered and fluttered, like he was trying to decide something.

I went upstairs, but didn't find him in our room at first. I could hear him somewhere on this floor, but decided to let him come to me, if he wanted. I would do pretty much everything for him at the moment, so I could offer him patience. It was been a week now and it was showing. On us both, I feared. We suffered together, like kindred spirits, and it wasn't always that great to be so close connected.

Suddenly he was there, walking through the door and I turned around. One look was all we gave each other; one look was all there was needed. I had been right; we needed each other.

He practically ran into me, hitting my lips first and kissed me fiercely. It took me a few fractions of a second to regain focus and he had me pinned against the wall, but I couldn't care less were I was. There was craving and needing in his touch, but pain as well, and it infected me too, of course. All of it. I tried to calm him a little, easy his pain by caressing his face gently, but didn't succeed very well. I could feel the frustration in his kiss, and despite the pleasure of this closeness I hated seeing pain in him, though he clearly didn't blame me for anything at the moment.

I pulled away for a second, or rather pushed him out in arms length.

"Jasper, I-"

"Save it, Alice", he pleaded and looked down into my eyes. In his dark eyes was still despair, but a light shone in them. Like tiny stars, and the stars was begging me to forget for at moment. _Very well_, I thought. Talk wasn't always the best way to go anyway. It didn't take him long to read the sympathy in my emotions, but compassion wasn't what he was looking for. He stepped close to me again and I flashed a real smile at him. It felt like it had been a long time since we've had this kind of privacy, only him and I. No matter the situation I always enjoyed having him close and he knew that. He knew everything by now. I got one tiny smile out of him too before his lips were on mine again and his hand at my neck, soft against my skin. This was a chance to get rid of my own tension regarding the same matter and I kissed him back with matching force.


	11. Disclosure

**Disclaimer: I do not own any Twilight characters or setting. Although it would be cool. Owning Forks you know.**

**And I just read my first review, so excited! It's really nice to get an opinon on my work, even though it's a long time since I did it.**

**Chapter 10**

Disclosure

It must be some hours into the afternoon, when I was once again appreciating the view from our room, standing with one hand against the wall-sized windows with a smile on my face. Behind me Jasper was getting dressed and he came to stand right behind me, his hand around my waist and his slow breathing in my hair. I knew that the rest of the family would begin to enter the house very soon, and I hated ruining the fun, but we had promised Esme to behave ourselves. No matter how much she enjoyed watching people in love, I knew she found Rose and Emmet a little disturbing. We wouldn't want to get on Esme's nerves.

We felt better now both of us with some hours filled only with pleasure, now safely kept in our memories. I didn't need his talent to know that he had eased up. It was like I could almost feel him smiling against my hair and it made me utterly happy, so happy that I could easily let go of all our matters. At moments like this I remembered that only a year ago I was just hopelessly searching for him and now he here with his arms around me, loving me. As the warm feeling waved through my body Jasper tightened his embrace, probably picking up the good mood. We stayed still for a few minutes, just standing like this, appreciating the silence and the other.

It couldn't last long, of course, the silence. I saw them coming and a few minutes after Rosalie, Emmet and Edward opened the door and entered the house, Emmet babbling as usual.

"Let's go join them", said Jasper and kissed my neck right below my ear, before he loosened the embrace again. I beamed at him and then danced ahead to greet our siblings.

Everyone picked up the joyful mood at once and that only caused Emmet to talk even more. Rosalie even cracked a smile at him. Edward looked at us, picking up the reason the mood-change as well and sent me a wry smile, before throwing himself into the discussion that I couldn't listen to right now. A lot of visions flickered by, some of Esme deciding whether to come home soon, some I didn't quite catch and some of Carlisle needing to work late today.

"God, school is dull. It's nice to be home. You're not missing anything, guys", Emmet said looking at Jasper and I.

"Well, at least we're getting smarter than you. Can you even read?" Edward asked, apparently being in his sarcastic corner today.

"Of course", I said. "I've had plenty of time to teach myself that."

"We need proof", Emmet said. "Here read the newspaper to us." He was waving the newspaper in the air and then smacked it onto the table. I froze as it landed on page seven, where the mayor's daughter was smiling at us from the black and white photograph. In my peripheral vision I saw Jasper first looking confused, then looking at me and Edward – who clearly hadn't seen that coming either – and then at picture of the girl. He did the puzzle and then he froze too. I turned to Edward and managed to mouth 'does he-' before he nodded, confirming my thoughts. I turned again to watch Jasper flee from the room.

"Dude, what-" was all I heard Emmet say before I ran after Jasper, catching Jasper in the hallway and cut him off the stairs to our room, where he had decided to hide.

"Jasper, listen-"

"So that was what you wouldn't tell me? The girl in the newspaper, that's who I was going to kill?" His eyes had regained the pain and frustration and I could get around this one.

"Yes", I whispered. I wanted to tell him sorry, but I knew I had been right. He didn't feel one bit better knowing the truth, I could see that in his agonized expression. "But Jasper, it doesn't matter now. The visions changed, remember?"

"Then why are you so worked up? I can feel it, Alice, both you and Edward reacted to that picture. I just don't see why, when we thought it was solved."

"I don't know…" He looked skeptically at me, so much was clear even through the pain. I had to just tell him everything now. "It could still be a possibility. We don't know why she was out there, so we don't know how far you are from getting back on that course."

"It's still a possibility…" He repeated. I couldn't read his mind, but I knew he was imagining the worst. Maybe not that far from my own mental horror-picture. I couldn't let this happen.

"Jasper, listen to me", I said, gaining his attention and holding his gaze. "It's not going to happen. I'm psychic for heaven's sake. I won't allow it."

"You're not omniscient, Alice, you said so yourself once."

"I know, I know, but it will be enough. You'll have to trust me."

He sighed. "You and your power is all I have left to hope for." He sighed again and left, going to our room and I decided to let him be.

Instead I walked back to the others and it seemed like Edward had explained the situation, because Rosalie and Emmet didn't look as confused as they otherwise would have been.

"But I don't get it", Emmet said. "So he kills one more human? Sure it would have been a pity with the girl, I would know, I accidently killed a woman once, but still."

"Shut up, Emmet", Rosalie said, and for once there was some kind of pity in her eyes, when she looked past me, to the place where Jasper had disappeared, but there was self-assurance too of course. Pride. She had never slipped, never tasted human blood and therefore she could never empathize with him. For once I wanted to snarl at her, but I behaved. I scowled a little at her and Emmet before I walked past them and snatched the newspaper from the table. I needed to see if the article said something important about her.

I leaned against the kitchen counter and skimmed the article, but found nothing useful. Just something about the school she attended, it wasn't that much about her in specific, she just happened to make a good eye catcher. I relaxed again and the anger had vanished by the time Emmet appeared around the corner. He had come to apologize about being the one to bring out the newspaper, so I decided to save him the time.

"Never mind it, Emmet, you couldn't have known", I said to him and smiled. He was a little taken aback at first at my sudden commentary, but he smiled back.

"Almost did some mindreading there, huh?"

"Rather future-prediction", I corrected him.

"Yeah, whatever." He paused and looked into my eyes for a moment. "You guys really need to go hunt soon. Doesn't it hurt?"

"A little", I admitted, because it did burn, now that I thought of it." But thanks for reminding me. The problem is…"

"Yeah, Jasper. 'When is it best to go', I get it. Still, must be hard on him too. Might even increase the risk."

I sighed. "I know."

Every hour was starting to feel like a year. We had decided to give it two more days, but to be honest my throat hurt more than a little. Carlisle had shown no sign of unease so far, but he was very special in that way. He had to be hurting too, though. Jasper was in agony. Every movement was made as if he was looking for prey and every stare was filled with hunger. Our eyes were almost black, so dark that it was hard to separate the iris and the pupil from each other. I noticed that when his eyes bore into mine, as he cornered me and pleaded me to let him hunt.

"Please Alice, I can't take it anymore. Don't you think we've waited long enough?" He said through clenched teeth, as if preventing himself from crying out in pain.

I hesitated.

"You know I would do anything to stay away from risk, from _that_, but I just can't…" He trailed off, but I understood him.

"I know, Jasper, I'm hurting too", I said, shot a quick glance at his beautiful but agonized face and made a quick decision. "We'll go tomorrow, I promise."

He onyx eyes lit up at the good news. "Are you sure? It won't be a problem?"

I shook my head but searched ahead again to make sure. I didn't find anything. "Looks safe."

He sighed in relief. "Thanks Alice." He leaned his head against mine, breathing slowly into my face. I snickered, though I for once wasn't sure how to react to his words.

"You make it sound like I'm the one to give permission for your every move." He closed his eyes and leaned closer to me.

"You are. You should be right now; otherwise I would become a murderer once again."

"Don't talk like that. It will be over soon anyway", I whispered against his lips.

"I am dependent on you, regardless." His eyes were still piercing mine and his breath was sweet against my face. "We should inform Carlisle about the plan. I'll go tell him." There was a sudden joy in his voice. He stood still with his forehead against mine and inhaled once, before he pulled away and left me. I couldn't help smiling, watching him walk straight to the living room, though it was a saddening thought that it was an excitement caused by pain. He was only exited to get rid of torture. The burning in his throat. In mine as well.

Just then Esme walked down the staircase and found me leaning against it.

"Is everything alright, Alice?" She asked and I turned my head towards her worried face. I smiled.

"It seems like it finally is. We are going hunting tomorrow."

"Good. Lord knows it's about time", she said, touching my cheek with a finger. "You must be in pain." I didn't answer but Esme must know that I was anyway.

She hesitated for a moment, as if she wasn't sure whether to add something or just walk away.

"So, does this mean that it's over? He won't kill?" She asked then.

"We hope so. I wouldn't make him go if I could see even the slightest risk. We can never be sure though." I didn't like my last comment, but it was the truth. I could be honest with myself, so why not with Esme too. It would worry her a lot, more than anyone else except for me, but she deserved honesty.

She didn't like that last comment either; I could see it in her face. But she smiled at me anyway.

"I'm sure it will be okay", she said in a soothing voice, and I nodded hesitantly.

She left and I decided to get some fresh air.

The air was indeed fresh, as I sat on the terrace, staring into space. It had been raining an hour ago, and the air was so clean. Clouds were still covering the sky, making it seems later than it actually was, due to the darkness. I could still see evidence of the rain. The grass was wet, though the wood on the terrace, where I sat, Indian style, had managed to stay dry. Maybe because there was no wind.

There was complete silence for a while, and that had a lot to say when your ears are as sensitive as ours. Not a bird singing, no sound of a car. Like the world was standing still, waiting, along with us. _It'll be over soon_, I told myself, though I somehow didn't believe my own words. It was over for this time, but Jasper could be tempted again in the future. I wasn't oblivious to that. _Then again_, I argued, _he can change. We all did_. It would take time, I was sure of that. At moments like this it bothered me that I couldn't remember my newborn years, because now I couldn't empathize with him as well as the others. It really bothered me. Still, human blood did tempt me too. I recalled the first week with Jasper, the two hikers. That had hurt a lot, but yet I had resisted. So you could believe my words, when I said that Jasper could conquer this. I would. He had a soldiers discipline and he was stubborn. He would succeed, I knew that.

At the same time I thought this, the door opened behind me and Jasper approached me. Even if I hadn't just seen a vision of him going out here to check on my, I would have known it was him anyway. The sound of his steps was familiar and his sweet scent gave him away completely, especially in this clean air.

I smiled into the air as he sat behind me, so close that I could feel his chest against my back, and his breath at the right side of my neck, tickling my skin.

"I thought you wouldn't move outside the house?" I said, making it sound like a question, though it really wasn't.

"Well, you were out here. If there had been any risk, you would have stopped me", he answered and I made a quiet snicker, barely audible.

"Guess you're right." I thought about mentioning that human scents could easily be picked up in air as fresh as this, but I decided to trust my talent instead. Silence filled the air, as neither of us spoke, just appreciating the presence of the other. He took my hands, eventually, and folded them in my lap, cupping them with his own. I leaned my head back against his shoulder and he kissed my neck, his lips lingering for a while. I sighed and smiled, closing my eyes to the world.

"It's nice to have you close, have I ever said that?" Said Jasper quietly, still with his face against my neck. His breath tickled my skin again.

"Indirectly", I answered and he made a low chuckle. At times like this I wished that I would never have to move again.


	12. Killer

**Disclaimer: Nothing whatsoever is owned by me. Sadly.**

**Chapter 11**

Killer

It was both funny and sort of disturbing to watch Jasper's behavior just before we went out hunting. He was acting like a little child, all exited and strangely cheerful, but at the same time his eyes burned with desire and his body showed every sign of predatory impatience. Like he was ready to sink into a crouch just to jump at whoever might open the door. I realized that I had been holding him back for too long; the agony and bloodlust was the only thing controlling him right now. Fortunately he acted a little saner when I held his hand. Like he could concentrate on me instead of the thirst. I could handle a tight squeeze.

Just then Carlisle appeared in the hall and Jasper almost went crazy with excitement again.

"I am ready to go. Shall we?" He asked, gesturing towards the door and we were off.

I kept holding Jasper's hand as we ran, afraid to let him take the lead. I needed to control him, when he wasn't able to himself, so Carlisle ran in the front, leading us in a parallel line with the city of Dupree. It was the usual way, the way we went most of the time when hunting.

We hadn't gone long before the whole hunting trip turned into a failure.

A vision hit me again and the mayor's daughter was there again. I had no idea of how she could suddenly be here, but at least the vision was different the time. I was staring at the scene where Jasper was being held back by Carlisle and myself, only a hundred feet from the girl, who was looking confused and scared, but oblivious to what was coming at her.

"Stop!" I yelled half-conscious, realizing a few seconds after that they had stopped long ago. They both looked anxious and they had good reason to. I had no way of telling whether we would be able to hold Jasper back or not. Somehow I doubted it. I took a few seconds to figure out what to do now.

"What is it, Alice?" Jasper asked, both looking nervous and crazy with thirst. His black eyes bored into mine and I wished Edward had been here to explain while I went after the girl. I just had to explain quickly.

"I had a vision of the girl again, she's out here somewhere in the direction we're going, but I don't know why and I have to find her so nothing will happen, but you still need to hunt so go the opposite way and I'll catch up later. Bye!" And then I ran. I looked over my shoulder to see if they were gone, but they just started to move now. I hated leaving Jasper at this particular moment, but I had to secure the girl. Otherwise the past waiting time had been for nothing.

While I ran I searched ahead to see if I was getting close, which was difficult as it left me running only half-conscious. I caught at glimpse of her though and zeroed in on her. I shifted direction and ran into the woods where she was right now. I was getting close and when I saw her tiny shape in between the trees two things occurred to me: First of all I had to slow down, otherwise I would blow our cover, so I did. Second – and far worse – she smelled delicious. I hadn't thought of how thirsty I actually was until that moment. Even from this distance it was close to unbearable, but I had to control myself. I needed to bring her somewhere safe. Ignoring the burn in my throat as far as I could I ran towards her as fast as a human my size would be capable of.

"Hey, you", I called softly to get her attention. I had realized I didn't even know her name. She heard me and turned her head towards me. Of course she was a perfect match with the picture of her in the newspaper. The long blonde hair was ruffled and filled with little twigs and her clothes were dirty with mud, probably from falling. There were fear in her big blue eyes and the trace of tears on her cheeks wasn't dry yet. At least the fear wasn't provoked by me.

She didn't say anything at first, but she had stopped.

Most of all I felt the need to rush her, get her back quick, but I could see that I needed to be careful with her.

"What are you doing out here?" I asked. She burst into tears and I ran to her, despite the agony.

"I-I ran away, a-and then I got… got lost. Please, help me!" She sobbed and clinged to me, wrapping her arms around my thighs and buried her face in my shirt. She was a petite girl, only reaching a little above my hips. I tried to shush her, calm her, but it didn't work at first. I sighed and feared the worst, then kneeled so I was at eye level with her.

"What's you name, Sweetie?" I asked. She sniffled a little and rubbed her eyes until the became red.

"Amy", she choked out. "My daddy i-is the mayor."

"I know. Listen Amy, my name is Alice and I need you to come with me so we can get you home, okay?"

"Okay", she sniffed. I turned around and told her to climb onto my back. I figured it would be easier to endure the closeness if she wasn't right in front of me. She sniffed again, but obeyed and I started running towards the city as fast as I dared.

"Wow, you're strong", she said. I hadn't thought of that, but I guess it wasn't too exaggerated, so I just shrugged it of.

"Yes, I'm in a good shape." It made it easier to endure the pain, when we talked, I realized. "Tell me, Amy, why did you run away? It can be a dangerous thing to do", I asked her.

There was a silence first. A hesitation. "Because my mommy and daddy were yelling. They do it all the time and I hate it! I want them to stop!" She sounded like she was about to burst again, and I was desperate seeking for the right words to say to her.

"I'm sure they will stop, if you tell them why you ran away. They will understand." Her answer was a quiet sniff, but she didn't cry again. I did feel sorry for her; the situation had to be more than a little bad for such a young girl to run away. It didn't seem like she had intended to disappear for very long though, maybe just hide somewhere and then she had gotten lost. If I had time I would have to talk to one of them. They couldn't treat their little girl like that. She was actually really sweet and I would have enjoyed the presence of her if it hadn't been for my thirst. I felt like I couldn't take it, but I had to. Still, the hunter instincts had me focused on her scent and her every movement, despite the fact that she was on my back like a koala. It felt like my body was ready to betray my mind and just go for it. I flinched at the thought.

I had to keep talking to her. I thought about something to say to her, but she saved me.

"You are the new girl, aren't you? Daddy said that you moved here with your friend."

"Yes, that's me. My friend's name is Jasper", I told her. I thought of Jasper immediately, hoping he would hunt soon. We had been together two minutes ago.

"People say that he's scary. Why is he scary?"

I thought about how to explain it to her in a simple way. "He… has a lot of scars. That frightens people", I told her.

"Do _you_ think he's scary?"

"No. I love him."

"Love him? Like… kissing? Ew, that's gross!"

I didn't get to answer her comment. It was a miracle that I managed not to drop her, as I froze in horror at the vision.

_The edge of the forest, a man walking around, like searching for something – or some_one_ – but oblivious to what was coming. Jasper had scented him and his eyes zeroed in on his target, all emotion but one was gone from his face. Pure bloodlust. His overwhelmingly predatory instincts had sent him flying towards the human and he had the skills and speed to avoid Carlisle's grasp until it was too late. He slammed into the unknowing man and buried his face in the man's neck, tearing into the flesh until the blood was running down the neck of him. Then Carlisle was there pulling at Jasper with panic, and finally ripping him away from his prey. The limp body fell to the ground, almost empty of blood._

"Alice? Alice?!" At first Amy's voice was only distant, but as I returned to reality – or _this_ reality – I felt her shaking my shoulders, trying to wake me from the strange trance. I felt devastated. That vision had been crystal clear; it could only be minutes away. Maybe only seconds. Carlisle wouldn't have the strength and there was nothing I could do to help at this distance. I felt lost.

"Alice, what's wrong?" She shook my again.

"N-nothing, Amy", I managed to say, but my voice was shaking a little with shock.

"Yes, there were, tell me! Please Alice!"

"No, Amy, it's nothing. I just remembered something. Stop asking me, please." A complete lie. This wasn't nothing, this was almost everything to Jasper, which made it mean a great deal to me, too. I didn't recognize the man, but this could have consequences other than Jasper's depression. I couldn't see them yet, since no one knew the man was dead.

"Okay", said the girl in a disappointed voice. This could mean that she was out of danger, though, but I had to bring her in anyway.

"Cheer up, Amy, we're almost there. See?" I said, pointing towards the edge of the forest.

"I can't see anything." Oops, of course not. To my eyes it was getting a lot lighter, as we reached the edge. But I could always trick her.

"Really? Can't you see that it's getting lighter over there?" There was a short silence, and I imagined her narrowing her eyes to see the light.

"Yes! I can see it now! I'm home!" I wasn't certain that she could really see it yet, or of she was just faking it, so she wouldn't look stupid. Children were so easy when it came to that.

As we reached the edge of trees the girl started getting impatient, urging to get home, but at the same time frighten of what might happen.

"Mommy and daddy are going to be so mad at me. They'll yell at me", she said sounding sad. At least the tears were dry now.

"Don't worry, Sweetie, I'll have a word with your dad, while explaining to him how I found you", I assured her.

"Okay. Thanks Alice. And I'll tell him how nice you are."

I smiled. "You do that. But, Amy, could you walk from here, I don't think I have the strength to carry you any longer." Also a lie, naturally, but my throat felt like glowing flames and just a little distance would be nice.

"Okay", she said and glided down my back. Instead she took my hand. I could feel her pulse through the thin skin, but tried not to think about it. I had to admit that the distance was a nice change, but I still held my breath as long as I wasn't talking. For the same reason I decided not to start another conversation and we walked through the city in silence. It was exceptionally quiet at the moment, but it was getting late after all. Amy led us to the town hall, but I stopped in front of the building. She was probably announced as missing, and it would look weird if she just came running into her dad's office all of a sudden. I had to look like I was bringing her in, not following her.

"Okay Amy, I'm gonna have to ask you to stay with me until we find your dad, can you do that?" She nodded. "Okay, let's go inside." I held my breath and walked through the door.

The entrance hall was big and there were a few people at the other end of it, but I they didn't see us, seeming to be caught up in some unfinished work. Amy led us to a room on the right and then straight through the hall. That led us to some kind of waiting room, currently empty except for the secretary behind the desk. She looked up and nearly jumped.

"Amy, you're back! Good Lord, your parents have been worrying. We have looked everywhere for you!" She was around the desk in and instant and Amy ran towards her and hugged her. Only then did the secretary notice me. "Where did you find her?" She asked me and I took some time to think of a good explanation, only that time would seem like a fraction of a second to her. I also had the time to notice that the whole room reeked of human scents.

"In the woods. I was out running", I told her and she accepted that, despite the fact that my clothes probably did look like a normal outfit for exercise.

"Your dad is in his office, I'll go get him right away", she said, already on her feet, looking slightly overwhelmed and startled by the situation.

"I'll stay here with Alice", Amy said with a huge smile on her face. She didn't look like a girl who had recently been desperately lost in the woods. The secretary nodded and went through the door behind the desk. I could her everything they said in there, but it was only now I noticed that the mayor was on the phone.

"Sir, this is very important", she whispered, so she wouldn't disturb his conversation, which I thought was weird. His daughter must mean more than a phone call.

"Hold it for a second, Jefferson. What now, Karen? If it's about this damn weird brother of Rosalie Hale again, I don't give a-"

"No sir, your daughter has been found", she said and there was a sudden silence. Even Amy was silent, maybe trying to listen, but I didn't know if she could hear anything.

"I'll call you back, Jefferson." A moment later the mayor practically ran through the door and stopped in the doorway to scan the room for his daughter. Once again I seemed to be entirely invisible at first glance, but I didn't mind. The only thing I did mind was that there were now three humans in the room with me and I was almost desperate for blood. The venom was washing around in my mouth and it felt like my whole chest was on fire.

"Daddy!" yelled Amy and threw herself in her father's arm. "I got lost, Daddy, I'm sorry! I won't run away again, I promise."

"Oh, honey I missed you, we so scared. Why on earth would you do something like that?"

Amy shot her mouth for a second and looked at me. _Tell him_, I thought and nodded at her, because of course _she_ couldn't read my mind.

"Because… Because you and mommy were yelling again", she said in and low voice.

"Oh… okay, we'll talk about that later. I need to speak with…"

"Alice", she said. And then she pushed herself a little away from her farther and looked him right into the eye. "You promise? That we'll talk?"

I was astonished by that little girl. And so was her father, he nodded and hugged her again.

"I will call your mom, so she can come pick you up and we talk tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay", she said rubbing her eyes again. She looked sleepy now, but I guess I understood that. She had had a hard day.

The mayor turned to me. "What was your name again?" He asked, but not as unfriendly as it could sound.

Hi, I'm Alice Cullen, a thirsty and therefore seriously dangerous vampire, and very much in love with the other even more dangerous vampire you've just almost insulted.

"I'm Alice Brandon, sir. I live with the Cullens", I said.

"You're that new girl then. I'll need to have a word with you, but I have to make sure my daughter can get home and then I have a very important phone call. Can I ask you to wait here in the meantime?"

I guess I didn't have much choice so I agreed. This was going to be a long night.


	13. Rubies

**Disclaimer: I'm told I didn't have to write those all these disclaimers, but it's so much fun I'm gonna do it anyway. I do not own people or places here**

**Chapter 12**

Rubies

It felt like the waiting time was stretching on for centuries. Amy had been picked up by her mother, who also were completely worked up and it looked like she had been crying, but she had hid the tears from her daughter and they went home together in a great mood.

Left was only waiting. Waiting for the mayor – Mr. Wilkinson, I had now discovered – to end his conversation over phone and start asking me questions about how I found his daughter. No mind reading needed to figure that one out.

The whole time I was focused on _not_ focusing on the present human and her scent, so that left me with one issue left to worry about. Jasper. I had to call them, I couldn't see what had happen other than them going home and Jasper walking around outside.

"Excuse me", I said to get the secretary's attention. "Can I borrow a phone? I need to call my mother." She looked at me for a second and nodded.

"You can use the one in the back", she said pointing at the door behind her on the left.

"Thank you." I hurried towards the room and closed the door behind me. Fortunately I knew the number to our home, though I had never used the phone before.

"_Hello?_" Esme had picked up.

"Esme, it's me. I'm calling about Jasper-"

"_We know, Alice. Carlisle was with him, but he couldn't catch him in time to stop it."_

"Yes, I saw that. I'm so sorry Esme, I was busy taking care of the girl, I-" I whispered in weak voice, but Esme interrupted me again:

"_It's not your fault sweetheart, we know you can't be omniscient so don't blame yourself. You did safe the little girl._"

"Yes... How's Jasper?"

"_He's very upset. He won't talk to anyone. He is wandering around the house, probably waiting for you to come home. When will you be here?_"

"I don't know yet… This can take a while; I have to clear the story out. I need to hunt too." For a moment I wondered if the secretary could hear me through the door, but then I remembered that we spoke so fast and so low, that human ears couldn't catch it.

"_Of course. Can you handle it?" _I knew what she meant and I was fairly sure I could.

"Yes."

"_Good. I'll tell Jasper you will be home by dawn then. But please hurry dear, he needs you._"

"I will. Thanks Esme." We hung up and I went back to the waiting room, preparing myself for the pain once again.

The secretary kept shooting my curious glances, but I ignored her at first, as a part of the whole coping-with-torture-plan. At the moment I just sat, holding my breath and practiced the façade of breathing and acting human. Moving my chest slowly to fake the breathing, blinking and shifting my position once in a while so I didn't look as much as a statue.

"Pardon me for asking this, but is it true, that you are parentless?" She suddenly asked.

I nodded.

"That's horrible."

"Well, I'm happy now, that the Cullens agreed to adopt me", I said.

"Yes, they do make a habit out of adopting children. Nice people."

I nodded again and smiled, instead of answering with words, so I could hold my breath. She seemed to take that as a hint to end the conversation, because she returned the smile and went back to some papers. I could hear the sound of the pen scratching across the paper.

It seemed to be some irritating case she was working with. Suddenly she made a frustrated snort and shook her head, which accidently made her blow her scent towards me, making it stronger. It was like the scent was some great power pushing me towards her and I grabbed the chair for something to hold on to. It twisted the burn in my throat and a low hiss of pain escaped my lips.

"Are you alright?" She asked, looking up at me with a concerned expression.

"Stomachache", I said, because I figured that if I explained it as a headache, she would just offer me an aspirin and I couldn't take that.

"Poor you", she said with sympathy. Just then Mayor Wilkinson ended his conversation and before I could answer her, he yelled through the door for Karen to come. She gave me a quick smile and went to him.

"You can just go into him now", she said as she reappeared in the waiting room.

"Thank you", I said and hurried inside. I held my breath as soon as I had spoken. I walked through the door and closed it behind me. He gave me a weird smile and I sat down in the chair at his desk. He was sitting at the opposite side, looking tired.

"Thank you for your patience, Alice. I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I have to hear your story about how you found my girl. I need to know what happened."

"Of course", I said, but as I spoke I took a breath. God, the air was stuffy in here! His scent was everywhere in the room and so thick, and God, it hurt! I buried my fingers into the chair to prevent myself from jumping at him. I found myself wondering about how his blood would taste and could I be quick enough that he wouldn't scream? The secretary would probably hear the sound of chairs scraping against the floor and then I would have to kill her too. They would all be upset with me for blowing it all up. Jasper would understand, but the rest… Esme would sympathize, but she would be sad. _No!_ I told myself. _Focus!_ I kept my breath steady and forced myself to look at him. He was gazing back with a confused and worried expression on his round face.

"Is everything alright?"

"Yes, just… Stomachache."

"I promise you have nothing to be nervous about, I just want to hear the story from your side. Better I talk to you now, than having the police starting to question. We called them you see…" Was he threatening me? I didn't quite catch that. He seemed to be under the impression that my so called stomachache was provoked by anxiety.

"Yes, sure. Well, I was running in the forest when I saw her. I guess it was out of pure luck that I ran into her. She told me that she was lost and I promised to take her back, so she followed. I also asked her why she was out there and she said that she had run away from home because you and your wife seemed to have had some kind of fight." I decided not to add the 'again'. I felt proud of my self for sounding way more casual than I felt. He nodded slowly.

"Well, that what my daughter said too. You are sure that she didn't have any sign of having been… taken by someone?"

"No, not at all. Her clothes were dirty only from the forest floor, and it didn't look like she was running from someone. She was merely walking around in aimlessness when I saw her."

He leaned back in his chair with a sigh, at the same time exposing his throat. It somehow made me think of the vision of Jasper tearing up the man's neck and it only made me more agitated. For a second I thought I would actually snap and just go for it. I felt the slight movement of my body as if I would spring, but I managed to hold on to the chair and keep myself sane. That second before I had gotten a tiny glimpse of myself tearing through his flesh and I flinched. I tried to think of Amy and how much I would hurt her, if I killed her father.

"Are you sure, you're okay? You look sick."

"Just the stomach", I said through my teeth, clenched firmly together.

"Maybe you should go see a doctor", he suggested and for an insane moment I wanted to laugh at him.

"My farther is a doctor, he'll have a look at me, when I get home", I answered instead.

"You go home then, I think we got things straightened out. I might call your home, if the police decide to look into the situation", he finally said, but I only managed a nod and a failure of a smile as an answer and headed for the door, reminding myself to walk at human speed.

I almost broke through the door and startled Karen, again reminding myself to act human and at least offer her a nod as goodbye.

"You look sick, poor girl, is it the stomach?"

"I'm coping", I choked out, nearly not believing my words. I heard her say something as I walked out, but I couldn't make out the words. I ran – human speed – through the hall and as soon as I was out of the building and out of sight I started running fast. That had been close! Now my only thought was hunt and I prayed I wouldn't run into someone, like Jasper had, because I doubted I could stop myself now. I flew through the forest and up north, away from the city. It was really dark outside, so hopefully that had scared some humans away.

I practically threw myself at the first animal I scented and that being a small deer. Instincts drove me and I didn't think at all for that two minutes straight.

When the deer was dried out, I had licked the last blood from my lips and searched again. That one deer wasn't even close to settling my burning thirst. It still hurt in my throat, but at least I had regained the ability to think straight. I headed towards the place where I had hunted with Carlisle and Esme the first time, hoping to find a bear. I needed something with a lot of blood in, or this was going to take forever. The vision assured me that I was on the right track and I sped up with excitement.

As soon as I scented the bear I went crazy again. The bear had one second to react and it did try to hit me, but it didn't stand a chance. I'm not even sure the claws hit me before I had knocked it to the ground and finished it off. It was unbelievable how delicious even animal blood could taste when you _really_ need to feed. This had been way too close, but I felt relieved now and let myself enjoy the taste. The good taste was definitely a first. Animal blood never tasted good, except at this very moment. It was the taste of power and if not control then something similar.

I took down one more deer just to make sure. Now I felt entirely at ease again and I felt the smug smile on my face, but the instant after I remembered Jasper, probably withering in pain at his mistake and I had to get home to him. I knew I would be the only one able to calm him down. Esme was right, he needed me right now.

It was some time past midnight, the hunt had taken me about two hours. I would be home plenty of time before dawn, but I saw no need not to hurry anyway. I zeroed in on the right direction and started to run.

I searched ahead while running, to see if there was something I had missed. I couldn't see where Jasper was at the moment, since he made no decisions, but I could see that Esme kept deciding to go check on him and then changing her mind right after. Everything seemed quiet and still now. The fuss was over. Or maybe it wasn't. The man Jasper had killed hadn't been found yet, but when he did people would notice that we were the closest to the crime scene. Maybe the police would come. Maybe they would blame Jasper, because he scared most people to death. Now that I thought of it I had heard some crude rumors about him and some was about him having killed someone. They would suspect him, evidence or not. Could he handle an interrogation? Somehow I doubted that, but Carlisle would help us out. He was a respected man and as long as they didn't have any evidence they couldn't do anything. _Exactly_, I thought. _I need to stay positive_. We would be safe.

But what about me? Would they link me to the whole thing? I had after all found the mayor's daughter at the same day at about the same time. That gave me an alibi to the murder, but what if they thought that I really had kidnapped Amy? No, Mr. Wilkinson didn't believe that, I could see it. Still… _No, stay positive_.

At the whole way home the thoughts kept coming back, but as soon as I reached the Cullen mansion I let it go. Jasper was more important.

I reached the house and walked right in, hoping the door wasn't locked, because then it would be a broken lock by now. They were all gathered in the living room, but I didn't take time to see what they were doing. As I walked in I only saw Esme, gazing out the window, but she turned her head to me when I appeared. She looked oppressed with worry.

"Where is he?" Was all I said, but of course she understood.

"Outside, by the lake", she answered and I was out of the door again.

The night was getting black, but it was no problem for me to see through. I could make out his shape, sitting in the grass by the small river, just as Esme had said.

He didn't react when I came closer. He was sitting still like a statue, looking at the water. Only when I was right behind him, did he turn his head a tiny bit to look at me. He looked so miserable that I was glad I was home early.

"Why are you sitting here?" I asked him.

"I was waiting for the dawn to come or for death to find me. Whatever that might come first", he said in a dead, grave voice. I didn't like it. At all.

"Hope it's okay that I'm here before the dawn. But shouldn't we go inside?" I was a little anxious at the thought of some human suddenly appearing.

"Stay." I sat down beside him, deciding my talent would work if necessary. He turned his eyes to me, piercing mine. They were filled with the blood from his victim, filled with sorrow and self-loathing. Still he was beautiful and the red iris still shone like diamond. Rubies maybe.

Words were not needed as usual. I knew when I had to keep my mouth shut, so we just stared into each others faces as we always did, when emotions were easier to understand than words. Like our own kind of mindreading. I wasn't sure if he was even using his talent on me anymore.

I laid my hand on top of his. He twisted his hand to hold it and brought his other hand to it, pulling it into his lap. For a while he sat there, twisting his fingers between mine and caressed my hand, while studying it with expressionless eyes. Then he let our hands fall to his lap again with an agonized sigh.

In a long time we said nothing and I knew that he was thinking about the man he had killed. I could see on his sad face that he was only blaming himself for the mistake, but I couldn't let him do that. And I had to let him know I'd done everything I could to protect him, though it hadn't been good enough. He had trusted my word, _I_ had trusted my word, and I had failed us both.

"I'm sorry, Jasper", I said, "I should have seen that coming. I should have kept an eye on you."

"Don't try to blame yourself for this one, Alice. This is my fault", he said without looking at me. I wouldn't let him get away with this.

"Jasper, you can't be blaming only you. I just… didn't see that girl coming. I failed us, I'm sorry."

"Stop it, Alice, I'm the one being a monster here. I'm the one who killed again." I considered mentioning that I almost did the same a few hours ago, but saw that it wouldn't do the conversation any good.

"Hey, don't forget that we're all denying a part of our nature here, so just because you slipped, doesn't mean that the others are perfect. Even Esme slipped once. Nobody's blaming you for anything."

"Except me."

"Then stop that."

"Let's not speak for a minute", he said and I shut my mouth. He wouldn't stop blaming himself ever, but I couldn't help him right now. It killed me. I thought he got that, because he flinched a little at my sudden change of mood.

So I changed the plan. Instead of all the sympathy, I thought about how much I loved him, letting the feeling spread through my body. Despite the tension, it wasn't very hard. I just had to focus on the way he looked at me, his beautiful gold, onyx or ruby eyes, because why did the color matter anyway? I remembered that I had had that same thought once before. With the hikers. I didn't love him any less now.

He turned to face me and stared into my eyes for a long time, hypnotizing me with his beauty as always. Something in his eyes tried to smile to show me that he had felt what I felt. And that he would be okay some day. I returned the smile.

His hand was at my face, stroking my cheek gently and his body slowly relaxed a little. I held his hand for a short while, then stretched up to kiss him. He didn't respond as first, just sitting still like a marble statue, but I knew the desire was building up. At last he returned the kiss gently and I could feel the joy sneaking in on him. Like I had borrowed his talent.

"It doesn't matter", I told him. "We have forever."


	14. Decisions

**Disclaimer: Once upon a time, Stephanie Meyer wrote Twilight with all its characters and settings. Not me.**

**Chapter 13**

Decisions

"We'll have to move again", Edward said. We were sitting outside by the lake and a discussion had broken out when Edward had caught Rosalie thinking about the dead man. "We'll wait a month or so, so it won't look too suspicious and then we'll move."

"It doesn't have to go like that", I argued and Rosalie agreed with me for once.

"We can make things work, somehow. I don't want to move again, we've almost finished first year of college!"

"Sorry about that, Rose", Edward said sarcastically. "But people will keep suspecting Jasper, they are already terrified of him, and I'm fairly sure Alice didn't make such a nice impression yesterday." I hated to admit it, but I did think he was right about that. Mayor Wilkinson had to be more than I little blind if he hadn't noticed my hungry stare, though I had tried to hide it.

Edward eyed me knowingly and Rosalie snarled in frustration.

"I am _not_ moving! Not already, it's only been four years!"

"We'll see about that, when Esme and Carlisle get home", said Edward coldly. Rosalie snorted and walked away.

"Maybe she is right, Edward, it is a little early to move. Jasper will learn fast."

"I really doubt it."

"Yes he will! He is willing to", I continued, annoyed by his pessimism.

"Sure he is, Alice, but you can't deny nature. This is his nature."

"I know it's different with him, but we all know it's possible to change, we're living proof!"

"We have had decades of practice and more. Carlisle has had centuries and it's still a little difficult for him. You have to realize that maybe Jasper will never be able to control himself. You can't make him do that even if both of you want you to."

I snorted, sounding a little like Rosalie, and didn't answer at first. So the punch line was whether Jasper would be a problem or not. It made me recall all the thoughts about police investigation I'd had yesterday on my way home. Would it be easier if we left? I hated that thought.

"Don't think we want you to move", Edward said in a softer voice.

"I know. I don't see us going anywhere either." Still, I would have to talk to Jasper. I sighed, wondering if it was going to be like this every place we moved to.

"It is a possibility."

"Get out of my head, Edward!" I snapped and got up. I left him alone at the lake, determined to find Jasper and get the truth out of him. I wanted to hear his opinion before Carlisle and Esme came home from their hunting trip.

I found him in the almost empty room that was sometimes used by Emmet and Rosalie. He and Emmet were having a conversation, but were silenced by my approach.

"We need to talk", I said to Jasper. Emmet seemed to take the hint and snuck out of the room, leaving us alone.

"What is it, Alice?" Jasper asked, looking at me with his crimson eyes. I stepped closer to him, and I could see in his face that he had sensed the seriousness and determination in me.

"I need you to tell me the truth. Do you want to leave?"

He looked a little startled. "You mean this place? Why would I want that, when this is what we aimed for?"

"I decided this for us, but I can see that this will be extremely difficult for you, more than I expected. I don't want to cause you pain, so I need you to tell what you want."

"You mean, I will kill again?"

"I don't know that, but it's possible. Maybe we came too early, maybe we should just leave them again."

"Alice, what are you saying? You love them." His eyes were widened with disbelief.

"Yes, I do, and I know you like them too, but-"

"We're staying, Alice."

I somehow didn't expect him to say that and I looked into his face, a little startled.

"But you're in_ pain_. You hated yourself last night! Did you turn into some kind of masochist?"

"I don't hate myself. I hate my lack of self-control. And I guess there will be no other way to learn, than the hard way. These people help me. If I leave, I could turn into a monster again and I'll do anything to prevent that."

"I would go with you. Help you focus."

"I know you would." He took my hand in his. "But it's easier to focus here. Sure it's more painful, but I'll learn faster here than out in the open. Besides, I do like the company." He smiled a little. I couldn't believe his stubbornness.

"You're so stubborn. Are you sure, this is what you want?"

"I'm sure. Either way I wouldn't be happy about dragging you away from our new family." I did love the way he said 'our family'.

"We wouldn't leave forever. We would come back eventually."

"Stop it, Alice, we're staying", he said, ending the discussion. I did suspect him of doing this for me, but maybe he was right. Maybe it _was _easier to focus surrounded by people living the same way.

"Okay." I smiled at him, but turned serious again, as I remembered the remaining problem. "So now the only thing left to worry about is the police. They haven't found the body yet, but they will soon, probably today."

"We need to talk to the rest about this", Jasper reminded me. "Do you know when Esme and Carlisle is coming home?"

"Hm… In about two hours, I think."

"You _think_?"

"Yes, because Carlisle is deciding whether he's had enough or not. Esme didn't need to hunt, she just with him for the company."

"Alice!" Rosalie called from the floor below. "The mayor in on the phone, he wants to talk to you."

Jasper smiled at me and let go of my hand. I was down in a few seconds.

"Thanks Rose", I said, as I took the receiver. "Hello, Mr. Wilkinson?

"_Hello, Alice, I just called to follow up from our conversation last night. I thought I should let you know that the police won't be bothering you about my daughter. We decided not to involve them anymore_."

"I'm glad to hear that, sir. How's Amy?"

"_She's just fine, thank you. We took her to the doctor just in case, but there was nothing. And thank you again for bringing her in_." I could actually hear her cheery voice in the other end asking her farther if she could talk to me.

"No problem, sir."

"Liar", said Edward behind me, just appearing in the kitchen. I just glared at him and rolled my eyes.

I could hear Mr. Wilkinson hesitating in the other end.

"What is it, sir?" I asked, wanting him to get on with it. I suddenly feared that the body had been found and he would ask me about it.

"Um_, can I ask a favor of you? Amy asked me if she could talk to you…"_

"Of course I'll talk to her", I said nearly laughing in relief. He thanked me and there was a scratching sound as he handed the phone to his daughter.

"_Hi, Alice!_" She squealed.

"Hello Amy, how are you?"

"_I feel goood. It's nice to be home again_."

"That's great. And no more running away now, okay?" I said, chuckling. Now that I wasn't bothered by thirst I could focus more on the conversation and she was actually a really sweet girl.

"_No, I promise. But you'd just safe me again, right?_"

"Let's hope that. Just keep your promise, okay?"

"_Okaay._"

I wondered if should ask her about her parents, or if it was too personal. Then again, her father couldn't hear me, he was nowhere near the phone.

"So did you talk to your mom and dad? About why you ran away?"

"_Yeah, I told them they make me cry and mommy and daddy promised they wouldn't yell again_."

"Sounds good, Sweetie", I said, hoping they would keep _their_ promise. "Well, I think I'm hanging up now, Amy-"

"_No Alice don't go!_" She squealed again.

"What is it, Amy?"

"_Can't I come visit you?_" I was horrified at the thought of having that girl here and I saw Edward stiffen too, out the corner of my eye.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Sweetie. My brother is sick, and I wouldn't want you to catch anything."

"That brother being me?" Edward asked, amused.

_I had to come up with something easy to tell her_, I think to him, so Amy wouldn't hear me.

"_Urrgh, that sucks!_"

"But you're welcome to call me again."

That cheered her up immediately. "_Wii! Okay!_"

Her father appeared at the other end again, telling Amy to hang up now.

"_But dad!_" She said to her farther, still with the phone at her ear. He insisted though.

"_Okaay. My dad says I have to hang up now. Bye Alice!_" She said and hung up before I could say goodbye. I smiled to myself at her joyfulness.

"God, that girl makes _you_ sound grave. And that says a lot", Edward chuckled.

"I guess so." I snickered.

When Carlisle and Esme came home the discussion started. Rosalie insisted on any solution that involved staying.

"C'mon, Baby, it's easier to just move", Emmet said putting a hand on her shoulder, but she shook it off.

"And safest. And it's not like you've made any friends in Dupree", said Edward.

"Shut up, Edward. No one knows if it's safer to move. And high school is boring! We're staying", she snapped, glaring at Edward. Jasper and I stayed out of the discussion for now and instead we watched Rosalie, ready to explode, and Edward looking coldly at her and Emmet eyeing me and gesturing to visualize his hopeless position in the fight.

"Try think about others too, for once", Edward hissed.

"Hey Ed, cool it down, we are all on the line here", Emmet interrupted, while Rosalie kept snapping at Edward.

Finally Esme had had enough.

"Calm down! All three of you!" She said, raising her voice only a bit, but it was enough. "Stop arguing, we need to think this through. Alice, what do you see coming? We'll need to consider that." It was quite funny to see her take the lead, asking the questions Carlisle would normally be asking.

"They will find the body within a few hours, that's all I can see. They will probably take him to the station, and they will examine him. I don't even know if they're going to affect us."

"So we will have to wait and see about that. Of course we will claim to have nothing to do with it", Carlisle said. "It is possible that they will explain the death as an animal attack. It did look like it."

I had an idea. "Carlisle, is it possible that you can be the one to examine the body? You could tell them that it was a bear attack." _It sure looked like it_, I thought.

"Yeah, we could even bring a bear down here", Emmet suggested.

"Don't be silly, Emmet, you can't just bring a bear down here", said Rosalie.

"Why not? They don't live far from here; it could have strayed into the forest? Can't you see if it's gonna work, Alice?"

"Hm, not yet. But could you do it, Carlisle? Be the one to examine him?"

"Possibly. But I can't ask for it now, giving we shouldn't know about it. I could stay at the hospital, though, making sure I would hear about it? The hospital staff should hear about it soon after the discovery."

"So go. They will find the body within an hour, I'm sure of _that_", I told him and he nodded.

"Can I go fetch a bear then?" Emmet asked.

"This is stupid", Rosalie murmured.

"Why?"

"Because what if they see you coming? They're probably out searching the woods now, and if they see you position the bear you'll ruin the story."

"Then I'll bring Alice! Or Edward!"

"Since when did we become a tool that you can just carry with you?" Edward asked, seeming unsure if he should act annoyed or amused by Emmet.

"Come on!"

"It's stupid, Emmet!"

"But it'll be fun, regardless. Who can it hurt?"

"Be QUIET! Rose, Edward calm down and Emmet, stop acting like a child, we need to solve this now! God, this is like raising a bunch of wolves!" Esme said, sounding really irritated now. I suddenly felt the whole room easing up a bit and I knew Jasper where using his talent on us. Esme turned to Carlisle. "You should go, honey, we'll need you at the hospital."

"I will then. I'll call you if I get to do the autopsy." They kissed quickly and Carlisle left. When he was out of the door, Esme turned to me.

"Can you see if Emmet's plan will work?"

"I can try. Emmet, think about bringing a bear to the forest", I ordered and closed my eyes to focus better. The future was shimmering, and it was hard to tell whether Emmet would get caught or not. _Edward, think about going with him_, I thought and as he sighed, the vision became a little clearer. So maybe it could work. I also saw that the police was on the right track of the body.

"I think it will work, but wait for an hour and it will be safer", I said. "And you're bringing Edward by the way."

"I will come too", Jasper suddenly said, speaking for the first time. "I made this mess, so the least I can do is to help Emmet."

I didn't argue with him this time, but checked how that affected the situation instead. It didn't look like problems so I nodded. Edward would be there to look out for them.

"Cool! It's gonna be a real man-trip!" Emmet exclaimed. Rosalie shook her head and sighed.

"Don't worry, Rose, they won't get caught", I assured her, but she didn't answer. She turned on her heal and walked away instead. The door slammed behind her. Esme looked upset.

"Don't mind her", Emmet said. "She'll come around."

Edward snorted.

"Hey, don't sulk now, we're gonna go have fun!" I had to laugh at Emmet. Even in such a tense situation he found a way to stay completely unaffected. Must be some kind of talent. Edward rolled his eyes at me, but sent me a crooked smile. So he agreed.

Edward snorted again.

"Now what?"

"Nothing Emmet, Alice was just being funny."

"Can we hear the joke?" He asked looking from Edward to me and back.

"Nope", I said, sticking my tongue out at him.

"Urrgh, come on!"

"Who's sulking now?" Edward asked, amused. Emmet grimaced and we all laughed at him. I listened to all their laughter. Esme's clear and quiet snicker, and the boy's deep chuckles, Jasper's wonderful bass laughter being the deepest. I loved that sound.


	15. Seek

**Chapter 14**

Seek

After I had double- and triple-checked everything I gave the boys green light to go fetch a bear. Jasper seemed excited to get out on a bear hunt. I imagined that he was afraid to be locked up in the house again after everything that had happened. Of course we needed to keep a better eye on him, but what life would it be if he was trapped inside all the time? That was the main reason I hadn't questioned his offer to come with Emmet.

Esme had gone into town, officially to go shopping and unofficially to see how quick the news of the dead man in the forest spread. That left me alone with Rosalie and since Rosalie had locked herself up in her and Emmet's cottage I was basically home alone. _For the first time_, I thought wryly. I used the time sitting cross-legged on my floor enjoying my perfect view. It was getting late, the trees were a dark shade of green and the last sunbeams were reflecting in the small river.

Just then I _saw_ Rosalie entering the room and wondered what she wanted. Maybe she was curious about when Emmet were getting home. As much as I liked Rosalie we didn't talk much. She was a little difficult to be around sometimes, but she had reasons.

Now Rosalie actually showed up, but stayed at the door.

"Can I come in?" She asked in a hesitant voice that made me curious.

"Sure", I allowed and turned around. She came to me by the window and sat down slowly a few yards from me. First she didn't say anything, but I waited patiently. It sometimes hit me how beautiful she was, but right now she looked like a nervous child.

"I just… came to apologize. I'm sorry, Alice, I don't mean to be so offensive all the time. It just affects me too. All this… fuss over Jasper's kill reminds me of what kind of monsters we are."

I did _not_ see that coming.

"Well, don't worry about it, Rosalie. I guess we all get worked up by it. But I think you should save your apology for Jasper, he's is kind of the whole center of this."

She chuckled with nervous laughter. "Probably. I just figured that what I just told you wouldn't sound too good in his ears."

"Hm, you're right about that. So second thought, don't tell him that." I said. A strange friendly slash awkward atmosphere had come upon us, but I figured it was some kind of barrier we had to break eventually. "I was thinking… why do you mind moving so much?"

She smiled a sarcastic smile. "Because it reminds me that we're everything but normal. We wont' have a normal life no matter how hard we try. You and I, we will never grow, we will never get to have the experiences a human woman can have. Motherhood for example. All these humans and all these new places remind me of that." I nodded in agreement, because it was true what she said, I just never thought that much of it. I had Jasper and I had a family, so I didn't feel like I was missing anything. I knew Rosalie's story and I felt bad for her for not feeling as well as I did. Then something occurred to me.

"Have you ever thought of leaving? You've never killed a human for blood; you and Emmet could handle it on your own, if you wanted to." Of course I knew that she hadn't actually considered it, because I would have seen that, but I did wonder what reasons she might have had.

She shrugged and looked out the window. "Where would I run? It's not like I can run away from being a vampire. Besides I wouldn't make Emmet leave you, he loves you all... I guess I do too."

Rosalie seemed to have discovered a way to surprise me despite my talent. I was more than a little taken aback at her admission, but I smiled anyway.

"They know Rosalie and don't think anybody wants you two to move out."

She laughed again. "It's funny to notice how much you know about us, considering the fact that you have only known us for a few months."

"Hey, I've been watching you for decades, remember?" I said with a wry smile.

"Well, I do sometimes forget that, but I guess I'll get used to it. I have a mindreading brother after all… How did you find us anyway?"

"It's hard to remember. I guess you just showed up in my head once and I got so curious that I kept searching for more about you until the visions came to me by themselves. That's how I found Jasper, too."

"And then you just came here, counting on that we would accept you?" She asked looking at me this time.

I chuckled. "Yes, well sort of, except that I knew you would."

"I suppose that ruined the suspense… But I have to admit that it is nice to have a sister. I've never had that before." I shortly wondered how the conversation had gotten so sentimental, but decided it was nice with a friendly talk instead of a polite one.

"So am I the smaller or bigger sister then?" I asked teasingly and made Rosalie smile with real amusement.

"I would have to say the smaller one. Since you're smaller than me. Also I'm in college and you're not."

"I know I'm tiny, but don't mock me. And you should tell your mate to stop calling me a munchkin, like he did once."

"He did that? Well, I guess he's pretty childish from time to time." _Like today?_ I thought with a smirk.

Outside the sun was setting, disappearing behind the cover of trees coloring the sky with gold and pink.

Rosalie got on her feet again. "So I imagine the boys will be home soon?" She asked and I nodded. She sent me a tiny smile and headed for the door.

"Rose?" She stopped and turned around. "Thanks. For the talk." She nodded at me and left the room. I went back to watching the clouds with a smile on my face. The last beams disappeared now behind the line of trees, but I still stared happily out into the darkness. I had made Rosalie smile and she had come to me to apologize for something I sort of took for granted, but best of all: She had admitted that she liked me on some level. That made me want to squeal of joy, not unlike Amy over the phone.

It wasn't long after that Jasper and the other two returned home and both Rosalie and I went down to greet them. Emmet was first through the door and he went straight to Rosalie.

"Hey, baby, missed me?" He said and kissed her full on mouth. He also not-so-accidental snuck a hand around her butt, but Edward cleared his throat to get their attention back to reality before it had a change to develop.

Jasper went to me side giving me one of his intense deep gazes that always made me smile.

"So how did it go?"

"Why are you asking? Don't you already know?" Edward asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Don't you know that I already know?"

"Guys!" Interrupted Emmet.

"Okay, yes I do know, but Rosalie doesn't. And I want to hear why you snapped the first one's neck, Emmet."

"I was trying to knock it out. So we could carry it."

"And then you hit the animal with all your strength. Like any bear could take that and live", said Jasper from beside me, sounding amused.

"I was trying to hold back, I swear! I got a little over-excited."

"You child", said Rosalie, rolling her eyes at him.

"Okay, so we got a bear and placed it a little up north like Alice said, and made sure it would wake up, which it _did_."

"That one was pure luck", Jasper chuckled.

"But it _did_", Emmet continued. "So no problem there, but that's not the best part."

"Emmet got to play a sneaky agent."

"Shut it Ed, I'm telling the story. We also made bear prints at a few spots near the place where the body was found. Am I brilliant or what?"

"'Or what' is a good question. The humans didn't see you?" Rose asked.

"Nope."

"Not at all? God, they must be blind."

"There was no one around at the time we got there", Edward explained.

"Can you see if it has helped the case?" Jasper asked me, but I shook my head.

"No one has seen it yet and we don't know how far the body has gotten in the system. We'll have to wait and see. And Esme is coming home in a few, by the way."

And just as I had predicted Esme walked through the door a few minutes after, to find all of us standing in the hallway.

"Hello boys, how did your bear-catching go?" And then the whole story was repeated, Emmet sounding just as overstrung as before.

"He reminds me of you sometimes", Jasper whispered to me and I snickered. I did see his point.

When Esme had heard the story she, too, asked if it would work and I repeated myself.

"Hm, alright then. And Carlisle hasn't called yet?"

"Not so far", I said. It was getting late and we hadn't heard a word. Either that was a good thing or it meant that he couldn't get any information or do any autopsy.

So we waited. What else was there to do anyway? I was starting to see a good outcome of this. If Carlisle could perform the autopsy, we were safe, if not… then we would have to hope than someone else would make the wanted assumption. The police would stop asking questions after that. I hoped. We could always move the only one seeming bothered by that was Rosalie. I looked over at her, sitting in the couch zapping through channels with Emmet's arm around her waist. She looked at piece right now, not that furious Rosalie she became when arguing. I hoped she would ease up some day. I felt bad for her. Pain of the heart was more difficult to escape than physical pain.

For now everyone was so quiet. Except maybe Edward, who was upstairs playing a soft melody at his piano. Esme sat at the small table near the kitchen, sketching while listening to the radio. Jasper was at the couch watching as the channels switched by Rosalie's power. I myself was standing by the wall-sized windows, partly gazing out into the dark landscape and partly watching the figures reflected in the glass. Sometimes I met Jasper's eyes, as he stared at me in the window's reflection. I noticed that you can't tell one's eye color in such reflection. They were just dark in there. Dark but still sparkling like the stars in a nebula.

Then the phone rang.

Or rather, two minutes after my vision the actual phone rang and Esme got up from her chair to pick it up.

"Hello? – Carlisle, hi, what did they say? – That's wonderful – Oh." There was a short break where only Carlisle spoke, but I couldn't make out the words. "– We'll see you then – Bye, dear." She hung up.

The music had stopped and Edward appeared.

"Carlisle will get to do the autopsy, but he will not be the only one", Esme told us. "He has no worries though. It should take some hours and then he'll come home."

"So we just wait", Edward said and Esme nodded at him. He left again and soon after the music started again. It was that cheerful melody that Edward had made because it reminded him of me. Esme looked up into the ceiling and smiled.

"So, now what?" Emmet asked.

"Now we wait. Weren't you paying attention?" Rose said.

"Of course, but I meant what other than waiting do we do? Waiting sucks."

"You are _not_ going to fetch another bear, if that's what you think."

"No, no, I've interfered enough with the crime scene, I was thinking…" And then I didn't listen to him anymore. Jasper had suddenly stiffened in his seat, but before I could ask him anything he strode towards the staircase. Silence followed as we had all turned to stare at the spot where we had last seen him. I heard a low hiss coming from Edward and I searched the immediate future to see what would happen. I gasped as I saw what Jasper was looking for and watched his eyes widen. Then I ran after him.

He stood with the piece of clothes that I had seen him with, and watched the big split in the right sleeve.

"I didn't notice this before", he whispered.

"Jasper, talk to me."

"He was wearing that when he hunted. He thinks that missing shred is still at the crime scene", Edward said from behind.

"I thought of it when Emmet mentioned interfering with the crime scene. This could change things."

"Then what are we waiting for?" I said, feeling a little panic sneaking in on me. "Let's go!"

"Guys, are you planning to enlighten us?" Emmet yelled from below. There was a little anxiety in his voice, in addition to the annoyance.

"Go, I'll tell them. I'll join you if it takes too long", Edward said.

We ran really fast. We practically flew out the door, and out into the open.

"I can't see us meeting any humans on the way there. There can't be anyone near the area right now", I told Jasper and we sped up as we hit the woods. I did wonder why I couldn't see us finding it yet. Maybe something was in the way. I hoped the so called crime scene would be easy to spot, that _that_ wasn't the problem. The trees all looked alike. I didn't fear the appearance of the bear though, because it would be to far up north to disturb anything.

The jersey was in a dark green color, so the police could easily have missed it. They had, I would have known if otherwise.

"It's here", Jasper said, though it wasn't really necessary. The area was enclosed with fences.

"Start searching." I tried to focus on the smell of cotton, but it wasn't easy to catch out here with the wind blowing. We definitely had a better chance of seeing it than the humans, but that didn't mean it was easy. I recalled the ankle Jasper was coming from and ignored the unease at watching the whole thing again.

Another vision hit me. A few policemen were coming, deciding to take a last look at the area for the night. I had no idea why, but they would be here in approximately ten minutes.

"Search faster, someone's coming."

"How close?"

"About ten minutes." He hissed under his breath, but kept running around the place without leaving obvious signs of his presence. Stepping lightly on the ground so the footprints wouldn't be so obvious.

Five minutes went by with no luck. Two more without further success.

"Go home Jasper, I'll hide and keep searching when they're gone." We could hear their distant talk now, though they were still far away.

"I can handle it. We'll be faster if we're two."

"No! Go home, now. Before they get too close", I ordered. He stared at me for a second or two. Then he turned around and ran back towards the house.

I had to hide. I chose a tree nearby and placed myself on one of the top branches, between the leaves.

Soon after three officers walked into my view, discussion the case. It turned out to be three officers.

"… Why are we out here anyway? I thought we were done."

"Yeah, me too. My wife is going to be real pissed at me, I told her I would be home for dinner today."

"That's bad. Glad not to be in you shoes."

"Guys focus. John said we only had to look around a bit, to see if something has been missed."

In the meantime I sat up in the tree, desperately hoping they would miss it tonight too.

"Did any of you guys see the body?"

"Yeah, I did. Real nasty, I'll tell you that. I feel really bad for _his_ wife right now."

"Shut up and focus on work, Chuck."

They walked around for some time, and I thought I caught a scent of cotton, but I couldn't locate it just yet.

"Hey guys, here's something! No wait, it's just blood again."

"His blood sprayed this far? Poor guy."

"Yeah, I'm gonna miss this one. Paul was a nice man."

"Yeah."

They walked around in circles a little more, swinging their flashlights. A breeze blew into my face and I recognized the smell of cotton. It was a little below me, not far from the tree. Maybe Jasper hit this tree while running at the human. I hadn't seen that though.

"Okay guys, that's it for today. Let's go home."

As soon as he had spoken I smiled to my self. I could see myself finding the shred of cotton now.

When I was absolutely positive they wouldn't be able to see me if they turned their head, I jumped down from the tree and followed the smell of cotton. It turned out to be stuck below a small pile of dirt, but I found it and picked it up, making sure that no tread of green cotton was left.

I ran home. Jasper was greeting me just inside the door. He looked inquiringly at me and I held up the piece of his jersey.

"Got it."

"Thanks Alice, you've saved us once again."

"I am pretty good at that, yes", I said, smiling at him.

"So no more problems then?" He asked, relief very audible in his voice.

"Well, I don't suppose you left more stuff back there?"

"No, I'm sure."

"Good. No worries then", I said and sighed in relief too. That should be enough suspense for one day. He took my hand and he walked into the living room again.

"You found it?" Esme asked and I nodded, holding up the shred that I for some reason still had in my hand. I threw it on the table, or rather I _meant_ to throw it on the table but it was too light so it soared slowly to the floor instead.

It didn't take long before Carlisle stepped through the door, and everybody was up from their seats. I grinned at him and he smiled back, looking slightly tired.

"So, succes?" Esme asked him and he nodded.

"Animal attack then?" Asked Emmet.

"Bear attack," Carlisle answered. "I didn't say that of course, but judging from the wounds it could easily be a large animal."

Emmet nodded and smirked at Jasper. "Good thing you're so violent, bro."

"Don't mock him, Emmet", Esme chided, but Jasper didn't seem to be bothered.

"It's okay, Esme, I suppose my brutality has a positive side."

"Exactly. I was actually complimenting you", Emmet said, grinning.

Edward had come down again and was now quickly filling Carlisle in with what had passed in his absence.

"Hey, Jazz, Ed's telling on you!" Emmet exclaimed pointing his finger at Edward. I noticed that Emmet had made a habit out of creating nicknames for people. I smiled to myself at it. Jazz. Like the music. Didn't seem to fit, but I decided not to tell him.

Jasper just shrugged and smiled wryly at Emmet. "I can accept that." That made Emmet shut up.

"So what to do now? _Are_ we moving?" Rose asked, already sounding like she was on the warpath.

Carlisle thought about it for a moment.

"I don't think we have to", Esme said to Carlisle. "No one will be suspecting us now."

"But we also have to think about how long it's safe to stay, since none of us are getting any older", Edward argued.

"Well, we won't move just this month, regardless, or people would start to wonder about a possible connection to Paul Russel's death. But since as long as there's no danger or suspicions, I don't see a reason to move just yet", Carlisle said, and I could see Rosalie shooting Edward a superior glance. "As to our age I think we can last one more year, but no more than that. I have to work it in with the hospital and we have to find school for you."

"Maybe then Alice can start school too. She has proved herself capable", Esme said, sending me a warm smile.

"I would like that", I said.

Everyone seemed pleased. Edward merely shrugged at losing the discussion and went upstairs to play again. The rest of us split up too.

"So now everything is finally at peace", Jasper said to me as we stood in the hallway upstairs, partly listening to Edwards play and partly just enjoying the peace and order at last. I nodded to him in agreement, looking up into his sparkling eyes as he hovered over me.

"See? None of us had to go. I'm sort of surprised that you hadn't seen that coming", he said slightly chuckling.

"Well, I didn't. And you had your doubts too."

"Well, I don't anymore. Not when you're with me."

A smile formed on my lips again and I looked deeply into his eyes, realizing they were somehow always as mesmerizing as the first time I met his gaze. _My _Jasper was gazing back.


	16. Epilogue

**Disclaimer: I forgot one the last time, so I'm just gonna have to be twice as annoying this time. I do not in this present time, the past or the future, not in this universe or any parallel universe that might exist own the character's or places stolen from the twilight series. Okay maybe some universe, you never know**

**So this is the last of it. Hope you guys enjoyed it. Special thanks to Jessica314 who reviewed the whole thing, chapter by chapter!**

**Epilogue**

We ended up staying for seven months before moving, as it fit with Carlisle's job. It has been many years now and sometimes I wondered how the years had gone by so fast. It had to be over two decades now. Still the time I'd spent with my family was crystal clear. We were always the outsiders no matter what place we moved to, but that was something I'd gotten used to. A few times I came by kids like Amy, who as a child didn't have the same kind of prejudices as the adults. I remembered how sad Amy were when I left and I allowed her to call me again at the new place, though her father didn't like the amount of money it would cost for phone calls across the country. She ended up calling a few times, but it died out when she got other things on her mind. I didn't mind that much. She grew up and she was an adult herself now.

We now lived near Marquette in the state of Wisconsin, but it would soon be time to move again. We were reaching that time where people had started noticing Esme and Carlisle's young looks despite their age. The rest of us weren't noticed as much, because we supposedly were teenagers, I guess.

We had a good idea of were to move next though. Carlisle had been I touch with the coven of vampires in Alaska, the Denali, and maybe we would stay with them. They lived the vegetarian style like we did, and I was personally looking forward to meet them. Because of course I knew that we would go there. I had seen it already, but kept that to myself for the sake of suspense.

I also had a pretty good idea of where to move after that, but I also hadn't told that yet.

"Damn!" Emmett exclaimed from the outside and I went out there to see if Jasper had beat him to pieces yet. I laughed to myself as Emmett rose from the ground and was staring at Edward, who apparently had joined in.

"Go away, Edward, you're not fun to play with."

"You're such a poor loser, Em", Edward laughed.

"That's because you cheat."

"It's not something I can just turn off."

"Fine." Emmett scowled. "Again."

They ran towards each other all three boys and sounded like giant rocks hitting each other when they hit. Or when Emmett and Jasper was hit at least. Of course Edward was never hit, because he read every move both of them made and dodged each time. Emmett went for Jasper instead, but he too avoided Emmett's grasp and knocked him to the ground. Just then Edward appeared behind Jasper and sent him flying across the yard. Jasper just laughed and stood up, brushing the dust off his shoulder.

"And we have a winner", Rosalie announced in a plain voice, sitting at the last step of the porch.

Emmett snorted. "No fair, Ed."

Edward just laughed at him.

"Seriously! I want a superpower!"

"Emmett, you're a vampire, isn't that enough? You can punch through a wall for God's sake!" Rose exclaimed, shaking her head.

"Yeah, but so can you, babe. I want to do that freaky stuff too. Like special awesome fighting skills or something."

"That's not a power, that's called training", I said, grinning at him.

"Shut it, psychic, you're not invited. We don't wanna play with cheaters, right Jazz?"

"Hey, does that mean I'm out too?" Asked Edward in a fake sad tone, before Jasper could say anything.

"Yep."

"Aw, come on, Emmett, a big family fight could be fun", Jasper interrupted.

"Sure, we could make teams?" I suggested and Emmett stopped for a second.

"Okay, but I pick Edward."

"Fine, that gives me the winning team", I said sticking my tongue out at him.

"Hey, Rose, wanna join?" Emmett yelled at Rosalie, but she shook her head.

"No, I'm good."

"You can be the judge then."

She shrugged. "Fine. If you hit the ground, you're out. Last team intact wins."

"Let's do this", Emmett said, crouching with determination in his eyes and a grin on his face. Then he lunged forward at me, but Jasper was right at my side in an instant and pushed Emmett away. He then went for Edward who knew his move already and avoided it, pushing him away. Jasper landed on his feet and sprang at Edward again, and I did too, moving to avoid a jumping Emmett.

The fight went on for a few minutes before Emmett lost his balance and landed on his back.

"You're out, honey. Team psychic and military-man wins."

"Aw, come one! I claim a rematch."

And then we were all laughing. I couldn't remember when the last time was that I had this much fun. We battled again, dancing around each other in a fight that would have been deadly if we had been anything else than what we were.

This time they beat us, as both Edward and Emmett threw themselves at me, knowing of course that Jasper would jump in the way and they knocked him thoroughly to the ground. Jasper just started laughing on the ground and Emmett kicked it into a triumphal dance.

"Sorry Alice, reflex", Jasper said through the laughter and I laughed with him.

"We won! Victory to team mindreader and super-Em. High five, Edward!"

"That's a mean strategy, you know. Using a gentleman's manners", I told them, but Emmett just laughed harder. He was still dancing around in the yard long after Edward had stopped.

"I don't care. We won! We won!"

"I just thought you were a sore loser, Emmett", Edward said. "Turns out you're a horrible winner too."

"Do I look like I care? And you should be dancing too, you're on my team."

"God, you're so childish, Emmett", Rosalie said, but there was love in her voice. Emmett seemed to spot that.

"Yeah, but you love it when I'm childish", he teased and she rolled her eyes at him.

Just then Carlisle walked outside, and Esme followed, looking pleased.

"So what did the Denali say?" Rosalie asked, sounding edgy. She always got that when it was time to move again.

"They will be happy to have us there. Tanya has just informed me about the school and hospital facilities. Esme will also be able to work on architecture, so everything is in order. Jasper should be able to attend school again, if you want?" He looked at Jasper, who nodded. Of course, I thought with a smile. So stubborn.

"Of course I will", he said with determination. The episode back in South Dakota had told us to be more careful and we really were. It was only this time that Jasper had gone to school. The other years he had pretended to be a college student somewhere far away, so he wouldn't have to be with people so much.

"Be prepared to fail _again_, dude", Emmett teased.

"Better I fail than I get kicked out of school for killing the students", Jasper answered. That was the exact strategy for his first time in high school, which meant he had to stay one more year.

"Yeah, focusing in not sucking someone dry is probably a good idea. But still, I loved how the teachers kept comparing you to me", Emmett laughed and tried to imitate our English teacher. "'Why can't you be more like you brother Emmett'."

"I don't remember them saying that. They wouldn't even talk to me", Jasper laughed. I sometimes admired him for taking Emmett's teasing so well. Sometimes it made him sad and he would wait for me to come find him and he would look at me and I would stay with him, staring into his eyes and smile and eventually he would feel better. Today was one of the days where he could joke about it.

"Besides", he said, looking at me now, with love in his eyes. "I got to be in class with Alice for the last year … And Edward."

"That didn't help you focus on the lesson, though", Edward said with a smirk.

"It's not your grades we worry about at the moment, so don't worry, dear", Esme said, sounding very unlike most mothers I imagined. Edward laughed at my thought. Emmett looked from Edward to me, hoping to catch the story, looking sulky, when he didn't. He was very annoyed by not having 'superpowers' today, I noticed.

"Are you sure you can handle it, Jasper?" Carlisle asked, sounding serious, but Jasper just nodded.

"It is the only way to get better at this", he said.

"Shouldn't he maybe be in the same year as Alice and I this time?" Edward suggested. Alice is better at keeping him calm and we have talents – sorry Em. We had a few close calls here."

"I wouldn't mind", Jasper said. He was determined, but he wasn't stupid. Edward was right. It had nearly been to close in the past few years, so close that we had considered taking Jasper out of school again.

I smiled at him. I felt better too, when he was close to me. I could keep a better eye on him, react faster, and… Well, it just felt better when he was close enough that could reach out for him any time I wanted.

"As you want, Jasper. You will all go back to high school then, Rosalie and Emmett as juniors only and Jasper will be in year with the rest of you."

"High school, here we go again", muttered Rosalie, but no one answered her. Esme looked a little disturbed, but we all knew that she would cool down when we had settled down in the new place. Emmett shrugged it off and went to her side. It was sometimes funny to see how they worked together. Rosalie, always looking upset about something, but when Emmett was there, leaned into her and kissed her or touched her, she eased up. Emmett didn't change much, except that he always had a goofy smile on his face at these moments.

When I thought about it, it was probably a completely normal behavior, except that it was always different somehow. Rose and Emmett really looked like those teenage couples we saw at school; total flagrant and inseparable. When I looked at Carlisle and Esme it was a much more mature love. Like just the presence of each other would assure them, or the way a soft word from Esme could make Carlisle reconsider almost everything.

Edward made a sigh and walked inside. I smiled to myself. Poor mindreader.

Jasper and I were… well nothing like Rose and Emmett. He made me feel better just by being near. I could always feel him when he was near me, and that had nothing to do with my ability to predict his hand on my shoulder as I had just done.

I turned around just before his hand touched me.

"You saw me coming didn't you?"

"Felt it too", I smirked. He smiled and leaned into me, holding me close.

"Will you help me through another round of high school?" His lips were inches from mine while he spoke, which made it extremely difficult to concentrate. I could feel his breath against my lips, as he silently laughed, probably at his own stupid question.

"You know that. And in time you won't need my help."

"We'll see", he said kissed me gently, and softly stroking my neck as he did. Somewhere far away I heard Rosalie sigh with loud frustration, but it snapped me out of the pleasing trance of Jasper's kiss.

"I liked this place."

"You like Alaska, sweetheart", said Esme comforting.

"Whatever. Before we know of it, we'll be looking for yet another place in God knows what state." I smiled.

"Don't worry about that Rose, because I've got good news. I know where to move next", I told her, looking around Jasper to face her.

Rosalie looked a little surprised. "So? Where then?"

Suddenly everybody looked at me with curiosity. I was pretty sure Edward was listening to from inside the house. I had after all never predicted a home for us this far out in the future before.

"Let us know, Alice", Carlisle said encouraging.

I smiled, because I had a funny feeling that this place might lead us somewhere new, in some sense. Make changes.

"Forks, Washington", I said.


End file.
